If you're a streamer and you want to stream the upcoming Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, but you want to avoid getting slapped with DMCA claims, you're in luck. Eidos Montreal says the game will have a streamer mode which will disable licensed music.
Why does the Guardians of the Galaxy streamer mode matter?
This news comes via an interview between tech platform VentureBeat and Guardians senior narrative director Mary DeMarle. In the interview, VentureBeat asks DeMarle whether Guardians of the Galaxy will feature any kind of streamer mode to avoid licensed music "so nobody gets in trouble". A PR representative for Eidos Montreal confirms that the game will indeed feature a streamer mode, which will disable all licensed music and therefore prevent automated DMCA claims from bots on platforms like Twitch or YouTube.
The music industry and the gaming industry have clashed on this issue before. Recently, music publishers' union the NMPA sued Roblox for unlicensed song usage, simultaneously declaring that it would launch a renewed campaign against Twitch VODs over unlicensed music. Late last year, new Twitch rules resulted in the deletion of many streamers' archived videos, in a move Twitch referred to as complying with DMCA claims. Any streamer who wants to stream a game now needs to be sure that there's no licensed music that could get them into trouble, so Guardians of the Galaxy's streamer mode should be a relief to you if you're a streamer.
Licensed music and gameplay in Guardians of the Galaxy
It's a shame such a feature is necessary, because DeMarle says music plays a huge part in Guardians of the Galaxy. The game's "killer 80s soundtrack" will be available via a jukebox on the Guardians' ship, and it'll also play during climactic moments in the story. More interesting, however, is what DeMarle terms "the huddle". Basically, the Guardians will huddle together like a football team, and they'll inform Quill on how they're doing. Quill then has the choice to motivate them or calm them down, and doing so will result in Quill quoting lyrics to them, with the quoted song then playing during the subsequent combat scene. This mechanic likely isn't going to work too well with the streamer mode, but that's the price that must be paid to avoid DMCA claims, unfortunately.
There's a bunch more neat stuff in the VentureBeat interview about Guardians of the Galaxy, so we'd recommend checking out the full transcript if you want to learn a bit more about the game's narrative and character design. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy launches for PlayStation consoles, Xbox platforms, PC, and Nintendo Switch (the latter via cloud gaming) on October 26th this year.
Are you excited to check out Guardians of the Galaxy? Let us know in the comments below!
