Strategy geniuses want to promote their new cool game via Twitch – it only works so well

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The Swedish developers Paradox Interactive are considered geniuses when it comes to round strategy games in a historical setting. With “The Lamplighters League” (Steam, Xbox, Game Pass) they are now selling a new game and wanted to release it on September 28th. advertise via purchased Twitch streams. Somehow that didn’t go so well, says MeinMMO author Schuhmann.

What kind of game is this?

  • The Lampglighters League is a turn-based strategy game in which you control 3 or 4 heroes and compete against groups of “look like Nazis but aren’t” henchmen. In terms of gameplay, it seems like a mixture of Evil Genius (the strategy map) and X-Com (the fights)
  • A special feature is that you have the opportunity to eliminate some opponents before the start of a fight. Depending on your character type, you can throw mines, sneak up on them and knock them out from behind, or run around them at full speed.
  • The game has the look of the “The Mummy Returns” films, but is also often compared to Indiana Jones.

    • In initial tests, the game received an 82% rating from GameStar, but PC Gamer didn’t like the game much, found it too grindy, too monotonous and punished it with 62%. On Metacritic, The Lamplighters League sits at 75%.

    The Lamplighters League starts on October 3rd – a demo is currently playable on Steam:

    The Lamplighters League shows the gameplay in the trailer

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    Developer wants to promote game that is not for Twitch via Twitch

    What’s the problem with a game like this? A game like this is usually not for Twitch at all. There are at least three reasons for this:

  • For one thing, we Germans like the “turn-based strategy game” genre much more than the rest of the world. The release of the similar Jagged Alliance 3 hardly interested anyone outside of Germany. Jagged Alliance 3 is currently ranked 552 on Twitch
  • On the other hand, single-player games on Twitch are difficult anyway, especially linear ones, because you get spoilers if you watch. Exceptions are horror games, where you’re happy when the streamer gets scared, or very creative games like Baldur’s Gate 3
  • The Lamplighters League is rather slow in terms of gameplay and therefore it is not that exciting to watch. The gameplay loop repeats itself quickly

    • Normally, the game would hardly be of interest to anyone on Twitch when it was released on October 3rd.

    Paradox books sponsorships with major streamers

    This was Paradox’s plan: Paradox Interactive has booked a sponsorship with some major US streamers on September 28th. placed: The two largest streamers by far were LIRIK (3 million followers on Twitch) and CohhCarnage (1.5 million followers).

    These are variety streamers who are known to have a heart for indie games. CohhCarnage was also the biggest streamer for Jagged Alliance 3 and was way ahead for Baldur’s Gate 3.

    Did the plan work? No, unfortunately not. CohhCarnage screwed up the embargo and showed the game for 2 hours on September 27th. On September 28th he added another 2 hours.

    LIRIK stuck to the plan, but also only showed the game for the apparently agreed 2 hours and not a minute more.

    Switching from Counter-Strike 2 to The Lamlighters League costs every 2nd viewer

    That was the streamer’s problem: Both streamers were live on Twitch with a different game and each had to interrupt their actual stream and turn down what they wanted to play in favor of “The Lamplighters League” at the agreed time. Many spectators also disappeared:

  • Lirik had almost 20,000 viewers when he was active in Counter-Strike 2. The stark change in theme from shooter to strategy game drove away about one in two viewers. At the end of the stream he still had 9,400.
  • Things went a little better with CohhCarnage: But instead of 12,000 viewers who had watched him play Cyberpunk 2077 a few hours earlier, there were only 7,000 for the strategy game. It was a long way from its peak figures of the week of around 20,000 viewers.

    • LIRIK didn’t seem to really want to show the game now anyway: He turned off the game in the middle of a mission when the two hours were up and moderated relatively listlessly that the game was also available on GamePass.

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    What would have been better? The significantly better sponsorship partner for Paradox Interactive was probably the German Twitch streamer Writing Bull, who specializes in strategy and was already looking forward to the game at gamescom (via gamestar).

    He showed “The Lamoplighters League” for almost 4 hours in front of only around 450 spectators, but they remained stable. Writing Bull, who has already shown Jagged Allaince 3 extensively, may have reached the right target group for the stream.

    Steinwallen, who Paradox had actually booked with, wasn’t streaming.

    Sponsorship money for strategy games only buys short-term hype, but it quickly fades

    That was the problem: Paradox actually only bought a “very short” watch time peak with the sponsorship money, right in the middle of the hype for Counter-Strike 2 and Cyberpunk.

    As soon as this peak was over, no one showed The Lamplighters League on Twitch anymore: the day after, only one channel worldwide showed the game, the German Twitch streamer Moerp, in front of 171 viewers.

    Amazon had a similar experience with the shooter “Crucible”: They bought some of the best and most expensive streamers for the release, but that didn’t help at all and the game was quickly finished.

    When is the game coming out? “The Lamplighters League” will be released on Steam on October 3rd and will also land on Game Pass. A demo is already available.

    More about strange deals on Twitch:

    Twitch Streamer Accidentally Shows $35,000 Deal with the Biggest MMORPG on Steam – “Doesn’t Donate to Streamers”

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