I never managed to become a cyber sportsman, but on my hobby I managed to earn half a million rubles. In this article I will tell you how you can make money on video games: test, develop, play and write about them.
What do they earn on the games
There are games that allow you to sell virtual items for real money. Creators of other projects reward players for advertising or assistance in development. However, most games are intended for entertainment, not for earnings.
Around video games has formed a community of millions of people who are ready to watch the games, read articles and reviews, cheer for eSports teams, buy virtual items and order a pumping character in an online game. You can also make money on all this.
Advantages. Video games are a major hobby for the next generation. Two and a half billion people play video games, tens of millions work in this field. The video game industry is at the cutting edge of technology. Developers have high salaries, and cybersportsmen have crowds of fans and huge fees. It’s true, the competition is also huge.
Shortcomings and risks. The main disadvantage of games is not the healthiest way of life. Everyone who is somehow connected with the games, a lot of sitting and not moving much. Often there are problems with vision and tunnel-kistevoy syndrome – when the brush lies so long on the mouse, that inside pinched blood vessels and nerves.
If you decide to make money on your own, such as streaming or blogging about games, you risk losing time and money. You will have to invest a lot in quality equipment and promotion of personal brand. Of course, may be lucky and you will quickly notice the audience. But more often than not, beginners for years working in their own name for free.
Where to begin
Making money on video games is the same job as everyone else. Many people, including me, make a big mistake: they think that if they like to play, they’ll enjoy working in this field.
Cybersportsmen get thousands of dollars not just for playing for their own pleasure: before the competition, they have exhausting training with a tight schedule. Even your favorite computer game can get tired of playing it every day for 12 hours.
Developers of video games often need a deep knowledge of algebra, geometry and physics. Streamers and bloggers need a perfect knowledge of English, scripting skills, editing skills and camera work.
Ways to earn money in games
Game-stream. Streamer is a live internet host. Streamers go live through special services – large and small.
The main platforms now are “Twich” and “YouTube”, but there are also many other, less popular. Usual streamers are not paid their salaries – their income consists of spectator donations and advertising contracts. With the coolest and most popular streamers conclude multimillion dollar contracts for exclusive broadcasts, but such units.
Streams are a popular format with viewers. In the first quarter, viewers watched 2.4 billion hours of streaming at two large streaming venues – Twich and YouTube Gaming. But despite that, few streamers make a living on the air alone. Most often it’s a hobby or a part-time job.
YouTube. You can record videos instead of strips and put them on YouTube. For example, you can make a selection of funny moments from games. If the video gains a total of 4000 hours of viewing time and the channel 1000 subscribers, “YouTube” will open a partner program. Before the video will be shown ads, for which the owner of the channel will get a part of the profit.
Reviews on blogs. You can write your opinion about the game on camera, write articles or make podcasts and collect like-minded people. The secret to success – quickly pass the game on which you make a review, and release it before competitors. Money will bring subscribers and advertising. If the review will gain popularity, the developers will start asking you to tell about their game for money.
Mentoring, driving. If you play a game well, you can give lessons to less successful players. The scheme is comparable to tutoring: students pay a mentor to learn to play better, learn the tricks of the game and loopholes that will help to win.
Character pumping. Some players want to play online games for the strongest character, but not ready to spend hundreds of hours on monotonous pumping. But they are willing to pay for their character to be pumped by someone else. Suggestions are looking for near-game sites: type in the search engine “pumping your character in a game like this” and easily find them.
Cybersports. As in conventional sports, in eSports, constant training is important. Think about whether you are ready to play for 12 hours a day and treat the game not as an entertainment, but as a job.
Many online single player games have a rating of the best players. If a player climbs to the top of the rankings, he will be invited to online tournaments. After winning them will open the way to cyber sports competitions.
Online team games are more difficult. Not only will you have to find equal in skill players, but also constantly train with them. The biggest prizes are in team eSports disciplines.
Sale of game stuff, artifacts. For many people, the game – a real second life, where you also want to impress your unusual appearance, weapons and virtual home. For them, a knife for a thousand dollars in the game about the confrontation between terrorists and special forces is the same status symbol as a new iPhone or an expensive foreign car.
Earnings from bots. Bots are faster than people to count and make decisions. They can be assigned monotonous tasks, such as mining game ore, which can be sold to other players. But the developers restrict the use of bots to keep equal opportunities for players.
For the use of third-party software is forever denied access to the game. This does not stop profit seekers: they create new accounts and connect to them new, improved bots.
Testing games. Game creators hire people who will play it during development. Testers will have to identify errors before the game goes on sale. Sounds fun, but in fact have hundreds of times to go through the same levels and write about it in detail reports.
Working as a tester requires perseverance. Many say that after several months of work they stop enjoying video games. But if you prove yourself, you can get promoted and become a video game developer: many testers are involved in programming.
Game creation. Game development is a complex process, in which many professionals are involved. Designers develop characters and locations, animators make character models move, scriptwriters write quests and dialogues, programmers link everything together in the code of the game.