Noice is a brand new streaming platform that features a prediction metagame viewers can take part in while they watch their favourite streamers, and the platform goes into beta today.
Created by industry veterans and led by CEO Jussi Laakkonen, who previously served as Executive Vice President of Unity Technologies, the platform aims to add an extra layer to the viewing experience of streams by giving viewers the opportunity to take part in a prediction game.
When a streamer is playing a supported game, which for the beta includes Fortnite and Apex Legends, viewers can predict what will happen next by playing a card from their collection. In Fortnite that card could be something such as ‘the next kill will be with a shotgun’ or ‘the next material they collect is wood’. If that action happens you will gain points, and the people with the highest amount of points at the end of the streamer’s match will be shown on a leaderboard in the stream.
Streamers can create their own streamer cards, which play a clip from a previous stream and typically have some kind of related prediction, which serves as another revenue option outside of subscriptions. These creator cards can be purchased through the Noice currency, which in turn can be purchased with real money. For standard cards you can unlock them through loot boxes, again purchased with the Noice currency.
However, the currency, at least in the press demo seemed to be fairly generously given out, with the ability to earn more by watching ads on the platform. When it comes to ads on the streams there aren’t any, with ads being an optional extra for viewers to get more currency. The microtransactions involved are sure to generate some sceptics of the system, but they don’t appear to be needed and of course, you can watch the stream without taking part in the prediction game at all.
For the streamers, who for the open beta have been pre-selected to test the platform with open sign-ups coming later, they get a 70% split of all subscriptions and card revenue they generate as standard.
Viewers also create an avatar, which depending on the view they select, can be seen below the stream and can emote. Between games, the stream can show a lobby area of all the avatars in the stream, so your character can dance in front of all the viewers.
While Noice is initially focusing on streamers, my first thought when seeing the platform was that this would be great for esports broadcasts and sponsor integration. Running predictions of who gets the final kill in a pro-CS2 match or which team takes the first tower in the League of Legends World Championship then offering a prize from a sponsor of the tournament to the top performers would add extra incentive to use the system, and bypass the obvious issue of the streamer being able to influence who wins the predictions. Esports is an area Noice plans to expand into, but it will not be a part of the beta.
The platform will likely live or die based on the level of streamers that use it, if some big names start to use the platform then their viewers will surely follow and Noice could become a major player in the streaming space. With Kick also looking to take a piece of Twitch’s pie there is more competition than in previous years, but if Noice can expand its tech to other games and systems it could have a chance at sticking around for years.
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