Game On

Happy Friday. Reddit filed for an IPO this week, making it one of the last major social platforms to go public. We at the Press think r/oddlysatisfying is one of the best subreddits to discover new creators–what Reddit communities do you think are a must to check-out?-Hannah Doyle

In Today’s Issue 💬

→ Why marketers prefer to partner with student-athletes over traditional creators

→ Dr Disrespect’s new game studio lets users shape the final product

→ How one game led to a trillion views on YouTube

Student-Athletes Take the Lead on Traditional Creators

Brands are gearing up for 2022, and based on a new survey, marketers could pass on partnerships with traditional creators for a new kind of creator: student-athletes.

2022 will be the first full year that brands can partner with student-athletes, following an NCAA rule change in July that allows college athletes to make money from their names, images, and likenesses (NIL). 

By the Numbers

from 300 brand, agency, and retail professionals

61% → believe student-athletes are better at driving awareness for a business than traditional social media influencers. 

29% → expect to spend between $50,000 and $250,000 on student-athlete partnerships next year.

63% → say they don’t know enough about NIL regulations to feel comfortable using student-athletes. 

Because of the built-in distribution from college audiences, outsize campus presence, and TV deals, student-athletes have a huge advantage over other college-age influencers. 

However, according to the survey, brands see them as a risk because of NIL rules they’d have to navigate to make a deal.

Our Take

With college football playoffs and March Madness coming up, now is prime-time for student-athletes and brands to get educated on NIL rules and forge new partnerships. The world of creators is booming, and more participants means more competition for deals in the creator economy.

Dr Disrespect Launches Innovative Game Studio

What if instead of just buying your favorite video game, you could actually help build it first? That's what gaming creator Dr Disrespect is letting his fans do with the launch of Midnight Society.

The game studio is setting itself apart from others like EA and Ubisoft by taking a new approach to game development—they’re cultivating a “day-zero community”, which will allow users to get involved in the creation of each game, testing features and overall game quality.

Within 24 hours of its launch on Tuesday, over 30,000 fans joined their Discord and over 1,600 applied to their job postings. 

Dr Disrespect’s resume makes him well-qualified to lead a game studio—before streaming, he served as a community manager and designer at Sledgehammer Games with credits on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Advanced Warfare.

Our Take

Midnight Society is multiplayer content creation in action, where users can get in at the ground level of a game, and play an active role in how it turns out. It’s a new approach to game development that is building a community and loyalty in its early stages before it even hits retail. Expect to see this trend extend into non-gaming content as well—like fractional ownership in cryptocurrency similar to music.

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Minecraft Reaches 1,000,000,000,000 Views

Some YouTube trends fade, while others have staying power—Minecraft has the latter. 

The block-style building game started in 2009 and quickly found a home for fans and players on YouTube. 

By the Numbers

201 billion → the number of views Minecraft videos racked up on YouTube in 2020.

75 billion → the number of views the next highest-viewed game, Roblox, received on YouTube in 2020.

16.3 million → the number of views non-gaming creator Ryan Trahan received in 2020 for four Minecraft-related videos.

Our Take

Minecraft, which functions like virtual LEGO bricks, has broken the niche bubble largely due to its ability for narrative storytelling. Game consultant Jamin Warren predicts we’ll see a Minecraft reality show and even a major Hollywood film related to it.

🔥 In Other News

• Reddit files to go public.

• Hype House is coming to Netflix. 

• MrBeast hosts the third annual Creator Games.

• Larray starts a talk show on Patreon.

• Instagram rolls out Reels Visual Replies.

Have a great weekend. We're looking to invite startup creators with less than 100k followers to an event in 2022. Reply with your favorite creator who we should know about!