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PRESS RELEASES - OCTOBER 2023
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Multi-Stream Digital Advertising and Multi-Stream Digital Advertising Agreements (MDA and MDAA)
Trade Secret and Business Plan Proposal
Dated 10/18/2023.
Inventor of Concept: Derrick Croswell; CEO of Supratera, Incorporated.
To: All Prospects, Attorneys, and All Involved
PURPOSE
The purpose of this document is to establish Multi-Stream Digital Advertising and Multi-Stream Digital Advertising Agreements (MDA and MDAA respectively) as the Intellectual Properties, Trade Secrets, and Digital Assets of Supratera, Incorporated. This document will establish the need, proof of concept, market framework, legal basis, and methods of delivery that intends to give Supratera, Incorporated the competitive advantage within the Videogame Industry. This document is meant to be comprehensive in nature in order to provide not only justification for the establishment of said Intellectual Properties; but to also serve as the document of proof in the protection of said Intellectual Properties.
i. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Previous research conducted as of January 11, 2023, is as follows (and serves as the foundation for the PREMISE/ Research was conducted by CEO Derrick Croswell):
1/11/2023 (Original Research)
As of 2019, when the Twitch Developer Experience Games Playbook was published;
they reported that in 2018, the Global Games Industry Gross Revenue was $138 Billion Dollars!
The report they pulled this from is from newzoo.com. Now the 2022 report shows the Global Games Market at $182.9 Billion Dollars.
They did provide growth rates YoY for each sector, with these four categories of games being noted:
- Browser PC Games, which has a negative YoY growth rate of -14.8%
- Console Games, which has a negative YoY growth rate of -3.4%
- Mobile Games, which has a negative YoY growth rate of -6.7%
and finally:
- Downloaded or boxed PC games, having a negative YoY growth rate of -2.6%.
Illustration 1:
These numbers are not impressive at all for the Video Game Industry, since mobile Games make up 50% of the overall global gaming market and Console Games making up over a quarter of the overall gaming market (with all of these categories having negative YoY growth). [1] [2] [3]
Perspective
Gamers in the Global Gaming Community are massively underserved in terms of earnings from gaming (EFG). According to an article on newzoo.com in which the author's position is that In-Game Advertising will most likely come into games - The author provided a statistic on the number of gamers in the Global Gaming Market; that number being 3.2 billion players (and counting). [4]
Now - of that monumentally high number, the total Net Worth of the top 10 earning gamers in the world has a total net worth of $191.3 million dollars, according to an article from rivalry.com. [5]
A comparative analysis this figure to the 2022 Global Games Market Revenue earned of $182.9 Billion dollars, these top 10 earners' net worth only account for .104% of the total market share in
the Global Gaming Market (or .00104, respectively).
ii. PREMISE
Video Game Industry Overview
Per the International Trade Administration’s Global Media and Entertainment (M&E) Team:
· The global video game industry is valued at $159.3 billion in 2020, with 2.7 billion gamers worldwide. 75% of US households have at least one gamer.
· Global trends: the impact from the pandemic has driven sales, with the US seeing a record 31% increase in consumer spending on video gaming and subscription services. Mobile gaming revenue has grown to $77.2 billion in 2020, a 13.3% increase.
· 80% of US gaming companies are looking abroad to expand sales.
· Next generation console launchers will be a boon for the industry in both hardware and software.
· eSports continues to grow in popularity, but projected growth (in 2020) has been scaled from 41.1 billion globally to $950.3 million. eSports are estimated to surpass $2.5 billion by 2024. [6]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis gives more insight into the Video Game Industry as a whole; as a component of the Computer and Electronic Products – Manufacturing Industry. The footnotes in the BEA interactive database highlights software publishers; broadcasting and telecommunications; data processing, hosting and related services; internet publishing and broadcasting as most of the sources of these specific outputs. The data shows GDP statistics of $354.3B (2017), $369.4B (2018), $371.7B (2019), $369.6B (2020), $380.5B (2021) and $397.2B (2022) respectively. [7]
Illustration 2:
What can be determined from the commercial data and the agency data is that the Video Game Industry is still growing, from $159.3 Billion on 2.7 billion users in 2020: to $182.9 Billion on 3.2 billion users in 2022. Even though there is still growth, the Compound Annual Growth Rate metrics from this time period show negative growth of -6.67% YoY respectively.
Video Game Streaming Services Overview
As of present day, there are 41 total Video Game Streaming sources globally; with Twitch, YouTube, Kick, Afreeca TV, Trovo, Rumble, NimoTV, and Mildom rounding out the top 8 platforms in this industry.[8] [9]
Of these 41 dedicated platforms, the total number of unique channels reported totals around 21 million unique channels across the top eight platforms; with Twitch’s channel footprint comprising of 81.52% of the Video Game Streaming Services’ market share when compared to the top eight platforms. This is to show that there is an uneven distribution of content creators/gamers creating content across all 41 platforms. Moreover, when analyzing the data available, Twitch still has a theoretical monopoly on the Video Game Streaming Services market as a whole.
iii. PROBLEM PROPOSED
As mentioned in the previous research listed above, the gaming community as a whole is underserved in respects to access to earnings from gaming. Moreover, the current options that are available to gamers to be able to earn income in the Video Game Industry space is from these limited sources: (1) Prize Money from Online Tournaments (Private, Public or LAN); (2) Salaries from eSports organizations (3) Sponsorships, and (4) Streaming. Of these presented options, only streaming services provide the lowest barrier to entry to attempt to earn from gaming. However, although there is a low barrier to entry; the barrier to success (which is expressed in concurrent viewership) is massively skewed to a few channels per platform (of the 41 streaming platforms listed above). Quality of content aside; visibility plays a critical role in gaming and streaming success as a content creator. As it presently stands, of the four ways that gamers can be able to earn income from gaming; streaming is the only one of these options that is unstructured in its marketing approach – in other words; the streamers and gamers do not have the formal support of a company or a partnership to facilitate growth in their respective gaming categories.
Outsourcing marketing solutions is an option for a small percentage of the gaming/streaming community; but for the majority of gaming streamers, their concurrent viewership fails to get off the ground due to Sybil attacks[10]; where the only viewers that are on their channels are bots by direction of their respective streaming platforms. From a personal decision, a majority of small streamers stream to attempt to build a community - regardless of whether the goal is a personal or business decision. Where the line of opportunity is skewed is through the high variance in the distribution of concurrent viewers per platform, per category, and per channel. Each gaming/streaming ecosystem of platform, category and channel adds compounding effects of barriers to success for new, and small streamers. This is where creator churn will become an issue moving forward for the Video Game Industry; causing high saturation, continued falling performance, loss of production – and ultimately, loss of revenues and profit margin for all Video Game Publishing companies.
iv. THE PROPOSAL
Multi-Stream Digital Advertising and Multi-Stream Digital Advertising Agreements
Multi-stream Digital Advertising is taking the concept of In-Game Advertising and incorporating it into multi-streaming broadcasts. As it stands, there are a number of different multistreaming sites available on the market; mainly of note are Switchboard Live, StreamYard, Wirecast, Boxcast, Splitcam, Xsplit, Livestream, OBS Studio, Castr, Restream, and Streamlabs Ultra.
From expense considerations as well as reach considerations, Streamlabs Ultra is the best product on the market. Streamlabs Ultra multistreams to YouTube, TikTok, Kick, Twitch, Facebook, Trovo (and more). At the expense of $19.00/month, Streamlabs Ultra is the vehicle that will be used to execute Multi-stream Digital Advertising. The logistics around RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) is beyond the focus of this proposal, but documentation on definitions, practical uses and FAQs can be found on Footnote 11.[11]
Multi-stream Digital Advertising uses In-Game Avatars (in other words, the characters that are used in Video Games) on livestreams, creating an Augmented Reality experience in where the actions of its users can be directly expressed not only in real life, but can also incorporate their actions in Video Games as well. The impetus for using In-Game Avatars in Multi-Streaming platforms is to promote, advertise, and market proprietary retail products and services from one source: improving operational performance, brand reach, und ultimately revenues from sales.
The dedicated avatars to use between the streaming platforms and the game environment is known as Multi-Platform Avatars (MPAs), and will be versioned for improvements to appearance, and most importantly apparel design. The competitive advantage and selling point of Multi-Platform Avatars is the ability to market real world retail apparel in the Augmented Reality and In-Game Environments.
These digital assets are what Supratera will need to have IP licenses and/or product patents to prevent fraud, copyright infringement, and any other misappropriation of Supratera assets; and in turn, the Multi-Stream Digital Advertising marketing strategy will need to be protected.
How Multi-Platform Avatars (MPAs) differ from Cross-Platform Digital Avatars is its intended use, as well as proprietary customization. As it presently stands, there are only a handful of games that actually use In-Game Advertising as a marketing method (as opposed to one time promotion); specifically, the Grand Theft Auto series (Rockstar North/DMA Design)[12], Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment), and the NBA2K Series (NBA2K22 specifically/Take-Two Interactive Software)[13]. Of the three companies mentioned, only Respawn Entertainment and Take-Two Interactive Software have used Digital Apparel as a marketing strategy; but none have used Multi-Streaming Services in tandem with their In-Game Environments as their marketing strategy to promote their Digital Apparel. Moreover, none have included Multi-Stream Digital Advertising Agreements (in where the Cross-Platform Digital Avatars/Multi-Platform Avatars model other brand’s retail clothing as digital apparel in cross environments, for an agreed upon term, and for an agreed upon price to be provided to the promoter) as a part of their marketing strategy.
v. AVATAR CREATION CONSIDERATIONS
Main Competitor in the Avatar Creation Space; Comparison to Minimum Viable Product Created by Emergent Comics, and Proprietary Plans
The main competitor in the avatar creation space is ReadyPlayerMe, which is a Tallinn, Estonia company founded in 2014. The launch of the company’s avatar operations did not happen until 2020; with their current total funding over three rounds (with 35 investors) of $67.81M according to CBInsights[14]. The main developer of the actual avatars themselves is Wolf3D, who is the parent company of ReadyPlayerMe.
vi. AVATAR CONCEPT, COSTS, AND MDAA REVENUE DRIVERS
The original design of the avatar to be used as the main revenue driver for the Multistream Digital Advertising Agreement was made by ReadyPlayerMe (Illustration 1 below). The inherent problem with using the ReadyPlayerMe avatar was the inability to use the avatar for commercial use; also, the customization to Supratera company designs and logo specifications required a partnership with ReadyPlayerMe. Although getting a partnership with ReadyPlayerMe was attempted (and fell through), Supratera was able to get an MVP with all IP rights through Fiverr for $175. The turnaround time for the development of the avatar and the digital apparel was 26 days (see Illustration 2 below).
A third iteration of the avatar is required, which takes the cross-platform functionality into consideration. This will allow for the avatar to be implemented across all streaming platforms, and across all game environments – including PC, mobile, and console environments. The avatar needed to be made through Maya, per the direction of lead game developer Mykola Kharchenko (who has agreed to be a part of the Supratera team). Upon vetting various 3D modelers/riggers, I was able to get confirmation on cost and time horizons from 3D modeler Mika Adams. The details are as follows: for the digital apparel (with unlimited revisions), the cost is $200.00 USD, and the time horizon is 3 weeks. For the avatar itself, the cost is $300.00 USD, and the time horizon is also 3 weeks; putting the total cost to $500- and 6-weeks total time horizon.
Illustration 3:
Illustration 4:
Pricing Model for Multistream Digital Advertising Agreements
These figures are projections and will be updated accordingly to reflect actual data as it is documented. Per Mika Adams, the digital apparel will take 3 weeks to develop, at a cost of $200 (for the ballcap and the T-shirt). This quote will include unlimited revisions (meaning that Supratera can get the logo altered to whatever our client’s logo and creative additions to the digital apparel at no additional cost). The avatar itself is $300 and will take three weeks to develop; for a total cost and time horizon of $500 and six weeks to develop.
Venture Capital firms would want to generate at least 20% in profit from sales. To account for all of the operational, administrative, and management fees to sustain the project, these fees will be 5% of the total cost of the avatar (including digital apparel). Therefore, there will be three pricing models (explained below):
Pricing Model A: $999.99 total cost; (which includes three promotional broadcasts, and avatar inclusion option in “the Sunk Cost of Lost Time” video game)
Pricing Model B: $1249.99 total cost; (which includes six promotional broadcasts, and avatar inclusion option in “The Sunk Cost of Lost Time” video game)
Pricing Model C: $1999.99 total cost; (which includes 12 promotional broadcasts, and avatar inclusion option in “The Sunk Cost of Lost Time” video game)
NOTE – the promotional broadcasts will be 2-hour broadcasts, where Supratera will model the digital apparel of the content creators/eSports organizations/other artists on stream. Upon the end of the agreement, the client will have the option to include their avatars in-game (The Sunk Cost of Lost Time) to further promote their brand (this will be a standing agreement for the in-game option until the client decides to end the relationship, which will be at no cost to the client).
These pricing models will generate these gross revenues and returns (per model):
Pricing Model A: $249.99; or 33.33% gross returns
Pricing Model B: $499.99 or 66.67% gross returns
Pricing Model C: $1249.99; or 166.67% gross returns
Each agreement will be a total of one month in length. Clients will be given the option to renew their agreements, which gives the client more flexibility in the partnership relationship. Permanent partnership agreements will be considered should the opportunity should present itself, and the permanent pricing model will be added to this BPP (as an addendum).
In falling in line with the total revenue metrics from section viii below, the final revenue details are outlined here:
Total Gross Revenues (MDAA + Streaming Monetization)
Model A + Streaming Monetization = $18,500/month; or $222,000 annually
Model B + Streaming Monetization = $18,750/month; or $225,000 annually
Model C + Streaming Monetization = $19,500/month; or $234,000 annually
vii. VGPSX
Another service in where the Multi-Stream Digital Advertising strategy is to be implemented is in the creation of the VGPSX; or the Videogame Player Stock Exchange. The VGPSX is a type of passive investing (through video games) that allows other players to invest in eSports teams and individual gaming content creators for ROI and brand recognition (visibility). What makes the VGPSX a passive income source is through the use of Multi-Stream Digital Advertising Agreements between the (1) Investor – who is any adult gamer (21 and up) that wants to earn from the promotion of either their brand digital apparel that was generated by Supratera and used on Supratera avatars on Multi-Stream broadcasts and videogames (2) any other businesses/eSports teams/content creators that wants to earn from the promotion of their brand digital apparel that was generated by Supratera and used on Supratera avatars on Multi-Stream broadcasts and videogames; and (3) Supratera.
Player Stock as a Concept
Player stock is a variant of the concept of Equity Stock because player stock has value derived from something. However, where equity stocks derive its value from the value from the company’s market capitalization; player stock derives its value from the influence that they've gained not only from gaming performance; but from their ability to relate and connect with their audience (of which can only be expressed as an operational function of marketing, advertising, promotion and networking). What was once not standardized in the gaming community has now been outlined with these concepts. Player stock: therefore, is a person’s ability to influence people into forming a community and market around their skills, vision, and business acumen.
viii. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
All of the numbers that people constantly ask for – specifically how will Supratera get paid?
In conjunction with the pricing models for the MDAA explained in section vi above, the primary revenue driver for the Multistream Digital Advertising marketing strategy is through streaming monetization (which includes all donations, merchandise sales, subscriptions, advertising revenues, and site-specific bonus compensation). These monetization metrics are broken down below.
Twitch Metrics
How Twitch content creators get paid: through donations, merchandise sales, brand deals, subscriptions, Twitch bits, and advertising revenue.
According to the referenced Time.com article (using Streamer Facts as the source), the breakdown for earnings contingent on viewership (on Twitch) is as follows:
Illustration 5:
YouTube Metrics
How YouTube content creators get paid: through advertising revenue, channel memberships, product sales, subscription fees, and fan support.
The primary revenue driver on YouTube is the revenue earned from membership fees to the creators. Eligibility opens up at 30,000 subscribers (all platforms); but 1,000 subscribers are specific to gaming. The content creator must also be a part of the YouTube Partner Program. In return, the creators get 70% of the membership fees. Membership fees are $4.99; so, 70% of $4.99 equals about $3.50 per member (per month). So, at a minimum of 1000 subscribers, this equals out to $3,500 a month (on the low end). [15]
TikTok Metrics
How TikTok content creators get paid: through brand sponsorships, influencer partnerships, merchandise sales, Creator Fund payouts, and the TikTok Rewards referral program.[16]
For TikTok, the primary revenue driver is the virtual “gifts” during livestreams, which can be converted to cash. Altogether, TikTok doesn’t base their payouts on concurrent viewer base; but rather they base their payout model off of Engagement Rate, which is a measurement considering total likes and total followers when determining payouts (which would be on a per post basis). An example of a payout is 1M total likes on 1K total followers equals a 200% engagement rate and pays out $19-$28 per post: or $9,500 per post on 500 videos, to $14,000 per post on 500 videos.[17]
Kick Metrics
Kick, when compared to the other streaming services, offers one the most generous payouts and the lowest Affiliate thresholds for compensation through subscriptions. The affiliate program requires 75 total followers and 5 total streamed hours in a 30-day window. Upon reaching the affiliate threshold, the content creator gets a 95%-5% split on each subscription, where each subscription is $4.99 per month. At 100 followers, this amounts to $475 per month; at 500 followers, this amounts to $2,375 per month; and at 1,000 followers, this amounts to $4,750 per month. [18]
Facebook Metrics
Monetization for Facebook is the most stringent out of all streaming platforms; with a requirement of 10k followers, 600,000 total minutes viewed (or 10k hours viewed) in the last 60 days in order to qualify for monetization.[19] A payout example would be if Supratera was to get 1M views, the payout would be contingent on viewer location and engagement and can range from $200 to $2000 (which is the least favorable of all of the streaming options/would be a last resort streaming option).
Trovo Metrics
Monetization on Trovo also has some of the lowest monetization requirements of all of the streaming services, at 20 followers and 5 hours total stream time (along with 5k gems in your balance) in order to qualify. In terms of the upside; once a content creator qualifies for the Trovo 500 (Creator Partnership Program (the Tier qualifications are stringent; meaning that there are a limited number of qualified spots per tier, ranging from Bronze to Master), the payouts are very generous; with Bonus Gems and PK Points Gems (which are Trovo’s version of revenues converted to USD) broken down per tier below (illustration 6 is the spot breakdown, and illustration 7 is the payout breakdown which is updated monthly):[20]
Illustration 6:
Illustration 7:
Rumble Metrics
Rumble’s monetization options are through ad revenue, licensing, video sales, and subscriptions. The revenue share for Subscription Badges is the best of all of the streaming services’ providing 100% creator revenue share for Subscription Badges throughout the end of 2023.[21] This 1 to 1 strategy will make Rumble one of the go-to plans for revenue generation for Supratera.
ix. METRICS FORECAST
The benchmark across all of the streaming platforms to shoot for is 1,000 concurrent viewers/followers. This viewer base will generate a baseline of $18,250 per month (not including TikTok, Facebook, or Trovo); for an annual gross of $219,000. These metrics are only for concurrent viewership data points; and do not include the revenue per MDAA (which will be listed below).
x. LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
The Argument Against Any Reference of Gambling in Relation To MDA, MDAA, and the VGPSX
In order to facilitate these agreements, and where the idea of a videogame limited partnership comes into play for the purpose of providing a passive income source for the gaming community as a whole – the funding for these agreements is coming from administrative and operational fees which will be incorporated into the agreements themselves. The administrative fees will be the cost to draft the MDAA between any of the constituents of the MDAA; the operational fees will be the fees to multi-stream broadcast, the fees to organize the broadcasts (including broadcast scheduling, community networking and outreach) and the terms of the agreement (specifically how many broadcasts will the MPAs be used, the cost of development of the MPAs, and any IP release of the MPAs upon maturity of the agreement to the receiving organization/content creator). The purpose of this section is to establish that nowhere in this document (along with any other documents produced by Supratera) is stating that any product or service that Supratera produces is for any gambling purpose. Supratera specializes in producing video games and video game related content for the Video Game industry; and to that end, is the basis for the development of these inventive, innovative, and P2GV (projected to go viral) works.
Potential Constraints Regarding Business Formation Around VGPSX
The VGPSX will need to be a subsidiary of Supratera, Incorporated; and will need to be developed as a Limited Partnership in order for the subsidiary to be developed. Projections around the VGPSX to be formed in 2024.
xi. CONCLUSION OF THESIS (THIS BUSINESS PLAN PROPOSAL)
The Multistream Digital Advertising marketing strategy, the MDAA, the VGPSX, are all proposals to support the development, promotion, and sustainability of Supratera’s pilot game “The Sunk Cost of Lost Time” which is an open world, MMO game set to drop in Summer of 2024. The release of this game may be delayed contingent upon production processes, and potential time horizon roadblocks. The expectations around this Business Plan Proposal (BPP) are ambitious – getting the minimum of 1,000 concurrent viewers is what this proposal is based upon. Compound Networking is the driving force behind reaching all viewership goals. Compound Networking is the ability to accomplish business objectives from partnership to partnership using Multistream Digital Advertising as the primary viewership growth driver. Compound Networking amplifies engagement of any media related business by providing new content to a dedicated audience. The dedicated audience is the Supratera VNA (Viewer Network Association).
[3] https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/the-latest-games-market-size-estimates-and-forecasts
[5] https://www.rivalry.com/news/gamers-net-worth
[6] https://www.trade.gov/media-entertainment-video-games-sector
[8] https://escharts.com/platforms
[9] https://streamscharts.com/overview
[11] https://restream.io/blog/rtmp-streaming/
[12] https://history-computer.com/history-of-grand-theft-auto/
[13] https://nba.2k.com/2k22/myplayer-apparel
[14] https://www.cbinsights.com/company/ready-player-me/financials
[16] https://time.com/personal-finance/article/how-to-make-money-on-twitch/
[17] https://influencermarketinghub.com/tiktok-money-calculator/
[18] https://www.epidemicsound.com/blog/kick-streaming/
[20] https://cdn.trovo.live/page/events.html?eventid=64dbb9208f9ef0fc8a6fdc57
Press Releases - January 2023
Updated 1/18/2023
Current Funding Plans
Supratera is currently in the process of applying for various government grants to aid in the formulation of Supratera's Viewer Network Association.
Brief Summary of the VNA
The Viewer Network Association is a project aimed towards Digital Community Development through bilateral agreements between 1) followers and subscribers (known as members) of the Supratera brand across all social media platforms (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Dailymotion, etc.) and 2) content creators that want to join the Supratera community.
For clarity, this project does not aim to boost individual content creators inauthentically (as presented in the Facebook's Partner Monetization Policies; subsection Monetize Authentic Engagement) https://www.facebook.com/business/help/169845596919485?id=2520940424820218; or violate any Terms of Service outlined in any streaming service provided by third party companies (such as Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube Live). The goal of the Viewer Network Association is to strengthen these partnerships between members of the Supratera community and content creators in the Supratera community authentically through organized events; the choice of platform that the content creators choose to stream on is solely at the discretion of the content creator, and has no connection to Supratera.
Furthermore, please refer to the Terms and Conditions Disclaimer provided in the Legal section for information regarding user policy.