If you want to be a true content creator you must be ready to do anything to go viral, even killing yourself. In short, that’s the idea behind Content Warning, a new co-op horror game that’s instantly become one of the most downloaded by players.
But what exactly is Content Warning and why has it achieved all this success?
How to play Content Warning?
Content Warning was created by five people in six weeks and is published by Landfall Games, a publisher known for small games released on April Fools’ Day each year that tend to be parodies of popular genres. Content Warning is no different either.
It is in fact a clear one mockery of the world of YouTube and Twitch, inspired in particular by those who hunt for ghosts and other supernatural creatures in abandoned places, pretending to always find something absurd and exaggerating their reactions. Each match lasts three days in-game and the team of up to four players must descend into the “Old World”, a dark, black-and-white place where monsters more strange than scary reside.
Each player has a maximum amount of oxygen and must avoid getting skinned… or not. The purpose is indeed create viral content to publish at the end of the day and the most important person is the one holding the camera. It works as a team, with allies having to light up the monsters to ensure more views on the video. The result is clearly a mix of chaotic moving shots and full of screams of the participants.
The latter are the real fulcrum of the game. Content Warning is indeed poor in content at the moment and, although the team has already confirmed that it wants to expand the work, the truth is that the fun of the experience is directly proportional to the performance of the individual players. Running around and avoiding dying can get boring almost immediately, but having a team of players who can relate to the scene and do a little role-playing makes it a lot more fun.
Content Warning has no real progression and it does not have a narrative component, if not the one created by the players themselves. With the money earned from filming you can upgrade yourself and get props that make your videos better. Provided, of course, that you have allies on your side who are willing to commit and sacrifice themselves for the views.
If we wanted take the idea behind the game seriously, Content Warning would be a critique of the worst side of content creation: doing something stupid and dangerous by prioritizing the outcome over your friends and only wanting to see your views and earnings increase, then spending that money to get superior results and repeat it all over again or fail miserably and “die of sadness” (this is the game over of the game) since fame is the only thing that matters. But maybe it’s better not to take everything so seriously, otherwise the fun is eliminated.
Why Content Warning was successful
With over six million downloads, 93% positive reviews and a peak of 204,439 concurrently connected players (58th best ever on Steam), Content Warning can be defined as a success. Not a stratospheric success like Palworld was, but considering the production values behind it (we repeat, five people in six weeks), we’re talking about serious numbers, officially the best result for the publisher.
What allowed it to go viral like this? The first reason is the most obvious: it was free during the first 24 hours. The six million downloads indicated by the publisher refer to free copies. Content Warning was subsequently put on sale for €7.79 and sold 700,000 copies in a week. The latter is the most important fact and confirms that it has managed to attract the public’s interest.
The success obviously pushed content creators to get on the bandwagon and dedicate themselves to a product that in a certain sense makes fun of thembut which at the same time exists and can only live thanks to them.
Content Warning is perfect for the live world, being itself a “live” game. It is accessible, easy to understand from the viewer’s point of view, chaotic and without a plot. You can easily start watching your favorite streamer halfway through the live broadcast and immediately be immersed in what is happening, without having to understand how you got to that point. It is also based, as mentioned, on the ability of the participants to create skits: many twitchers are professional entertainers and, whether you like them or not, they know how to do their job; Content Warning is a playground, a creative space that gives you the tools to have your own adventures.
Will last? Hard to say. For several days now, the number of players connected simultaneously has not exceeded 30,000, compared to the launch peak of 200,000. Twitch data, on the other hand, is better in proportion (peak of almost 60,000 in the last 24 hours compared to the time of writing, with over 157,000 as the maximum peak of contemporary viewers). Also in this case it is credible that the numbers drop over the weeks, as happened at Palworld. Only giants like GTA 5, LoL and Rainbow Six Siege have the foundations to last a long time and Content Warning for the moment seems to be just a blade of grass among the redwoods.
