Hating Pewdiepie

     Recently we have heard that famous YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, or who you may know as Pewdiepie, earned $7 million dollars last year. That is $3 million more than what he has earned the previous year. Pewdiepie is the most popular YouTuber uploading content daily with millions of people watching it and have over 37 million subscribers. Pewdiepie has earned this not only through ads, but through sponsorship with companies. Not everyone is happy about this. He has gotten a ton of backlash and outrage over the recent news of his earning. The outrage was loud enough for Pewdiepie to make a video addressing this. In the video Pewdiepie said the following:

“Money is a topic that I have purposefully tried to avoid for the five years that I’ve been making videos, because I just feel like it’s not important to anyone.”

"Whenever it comes out how much I made a certain year, people just get so shocked. A lot of people were also very, very angry. They thought it was unfair. They thought I just sit on my ass all day and I just yell at the screen."

"To see so many people upset about this whole thing is sad."

     It is understandable to see why people are upset about hearing this. You have some people who slave away at their 9 to 5 jobs and make nowhere near 7 million dollars, some don't even barely make enough. You slave away at your job and you hear this person not only makes videos of him playing Minecraft and making goofy noises while doing so, but people are willing to throw a boat load of cash at him. It's enough to send you up the wall in a fit of rage.
     I know it is easy to write these people off as haters, but should we? No. Again, you can easily understand why people are mad, but I don't think people understand what goes behind what he does. Yes Pewdiepie does make weird noises while playing video games, even he has said that was true, but surprisingly there is a lot that goes in to doing what he does. There's more to his videos other than him playing games and making funny noises. There is a ton of research and looking into the demographic of a particular game he has to look into instead of saying I'm just gonna play Game X. There is a lot of time going into knowing what people want to watch. Not only that, but to keep them entertained. Pewdiepie is suppose be a very entertaining personality on YouTube and that is what people like about him and is what keeps his views and his bank account in the millions.
     I'm not going to tell these people who are upset about this to just shut up and get over it as in some ways they can be outraged. However what I can do is ask people to try to understand why he is making as much as he can. I'm sure if they do, they probably wouldn't be as mad as they are.

What are your thoughts on this? What are your thoughts on people who are upset about how much Pewdiepie makes?

YouTube vs Twitch: Who Will Get the Streaming Crown?

   
YouTube is planning to revamp and relaunch their live streaming service. The reason behind is because YouTube wants to put its live streaming in a direction that will cater to gaming and eSports companies and viewers.

     "Gaming and eSports in particular are going to be a big driving force for the new-look YouTube Live," one source said. "There'll be huge opportunities for established streamers and organizations soon and I would say that the record numbers of eSports viewers are only going to grow when Google starts promoting and partnering with these events." 

     As you can tell, this us starting to sound a bit like another site that allows. People to live stream playing video games. What site could that be? Of course Twitch. Twitch hosts over 45 million users with 12 billion minutes of streaming games. Only last year that Google, YouTube's owner, tried to buy Twitch before its deal with the site fell through and Amazon ended up buying it for 1 billion. So Google and YouTube has learned the motto if you can't buy it, beat it. But can they?
     Twitch has made itself know to be the place online where you can go to watch people playing games live. Anything that will try to compete with that will have a hard time to beat Twitch, including YouTube. YouTube has their work cut out for them. Although YouTube still dominates as the source for gaming content with Let's Plays and people who had became internet famous for playing video games like Pewdiepie, Markiplier, and The Game Theorist, Twitch is slowly coming for that crown. Twitch hasn't taken YouTube's place but it's starting to take its spotlight. So it's no wonder that YouTube is trying to outdo Twitch. The question is will it?

As I said earlier it will be hard to do, but it seems that it won't be likely for YouTube to upstage Twitch with live streaming gameplays. Twitch has put itself in a niche that people will most likely stool prefer to do eSports and do live streams no matter what YouTube does. Twitch has made itself synonymous with live streaming games. There's also the question of content. YouTube as it is now seems like a mini basic version of Twitch and until we see the finish product, which their probably won't be that much improvement, it will still come off as a basic Twitch.
     YouTube and Twitch are two different sites with different content. Again, Twitch is mainly for live streaming video games and YouTube has become a palette for creating other gaming content like shows and other forms of entertainment. They should stick to what works for them.

What do you think?

Smosh the Movie: Will it be a Smash or go Smush?

     YouTube viewers Rejoice! It has been announced that the comedic YouTube duo, Smosh (Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox), will be making a full feature movie. According to Variety, Smosh have partnered with Lionsgate who will be deal with global distribution rights for the movie. According to the press release, the movie is being helmed as a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure of 2014 with a bit of Road Trip thrown in to the mix. The movie will have the duo embarking on a wacky and zany adventure to erase an embarrassing clip from being seen by all, particularly Anthony's crush in the movie, Anna.
     For those who haven't heard of Smosh, they are a part of the YouTube elite. When people say that in order to make money and be famous on YouTube you have to had an account in 2005, they're mostly referring to them. Smosh has made an empire on YouTube. Their main channel consists of them posting comedic videos from the duo that are being watched by over 18 million subscribers. They have broken off to other projects. They have a gaming channel and a channel that produces other content like cartoons.
     Smosh, new feature film adventure is the most recent of the current trend of other YouTube celebrities that are trying to venture off from the site and are trying to make some money in Hollywood. Musical comedic duo Garfunkle and Oats have a TV series on IFC, Grace Helbig is getting a show on E!, and Epic Meal Time has a cooking show on FYI. All of this has started with Fred, a character Lucas Cruikshank created by posting videos of him as the character on YouTube. Cruikshank's Fred character has led to a series on Nickelodeon and a movie, which was also distributed by Lionsgate.
     While it is cool while Smosh have a major movie on their hands, the question is how will it fare to the general public that doesn't sit down in from of a computer to watch videos all day. Honestly, they will have their work cut out for them. They will be presenting their stuff to an almost different format. These will not be the same core audience of people who sit in front of a computer to watch content.  It is known that people who watch videos on YouTube have short attention spans, so the transitioning content from a 3-5 min video to an hour and a half movie will be a big task. A matter of fact it will be really hard. Will their fans actually sit in front of a screen to see the same content for over an hour? You also risk losing the quality of the content in the video like certain jokes by stretching them out and risking them not be funny. Going back to Cruikshank, Fred the Movie was a disaster. It was universally panned by critics and moviegoers and only 7.6 million people saw it.
     I'm not dooming the movie before it even comes out nor am I saying that it can't be done. Again, it will be a hard task. There is a possibility that the Smosh can pull it off and the movie might do well. Regardless if it does well or not, it is fascinating to see Smosh try to do something outside of their comfort zone of posting YouTube videos. Like the other YouTube stars I mentioned earlier, I'm sure they know that their time on YouTube is short. You can't capitalize off of YouTube forever. You have to try other markets and do something bigger and different. It will be interesting to see if they can actually venture off from web content and make a name for themselves in Hollywood.

What are your thoughts on how the movie will fair? Do you thing it will be good or will it be bad?