People love watching other people play games. Just look at YouTube sensation PewDiePie, with 38.9 million subscribers, 9.9 billion total views, and his own South Park parody episode. Twitch, an online video channel specifically created to spectate on live video games (and broadcast your own playthroughs), was acquired by Amazon last summer for nearly US$1 billion. Just yesterday, Google revealed its own Twitch competitor in a bid to keep things under the G-umbrella.
Japanese mobile gaming giant DeNA is hoping to create a similarly rabid fanbase for mobile games with Mirrativ, a new app that it unveiled for Android devices today. It has the potential to tease out a PewDiePie-esque live gaming celebrity for the small screen – but its usefulness extends far beyond games.
The current method of sharing your smartphone or tablet screen generally requires hooking it up to a PC, either with physical cables or a shared wifi connection, defeating the purpose of a gadget that’s meant to be portable. Mirrativ allows a user to initiate a live video feed, a la Periscope or Meerkat, but with their entire mobile screen being mirrored on the viewer’s device.
Broadcasters can then choose to add voice commentary or a picture-in-picture video of themselves using the front-facing camera. Streams can be shared with followers, who can comment and send likes (in the form of stars) in real time.
Star Mirrativ-ers
Mirrativ producer Junichi Akagawa is confident that DeNA’s new service will spawn its own legion of die-hard spectators and content creators.
“Mirrativ is made for the mobile generation, and I believe a new kind of unique culture will be created by it,” he tells Tech in Asia. “I hope many people will broadcast their screens casually, to share content like game playthroughs. Some will become star Mirrativ-ers, even though they’re not famous yet today.”
Junichi adds that it would be “awesome” to have someone like PewDiePie on board, but says that his team is “planning to have some influential people” broadcast on the platform to drum up adoption.
In addition to watching games (but keep in mind that DeNA became the first mobile gaming firm to ink a deal with Nintendo), Mirrativ could be used to share tips and tricks for a variety of apps (i.e. taking a great photo and editing it on Instagram) or getting advice and feedback from followers (i.e. deciding which shirt to buy on an ecommerce site).
The free Android app supports English, Japanese, and Korean. DeNA wouldn’t specify a timeline for Mirrativ’s iOS launch, but said it’s coming soon.
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