Now that VGX is an almost distant memory at this point, Viacom has reported that 1.1 million people spent an average of almost 32 minutes watching the VGX stream, with viewers around the world making VGX a trend in the US and around the world on Twitter.
While there have been many complaints and constructive criticisms from us and many others about VGX, Executive Vice President of Digital Media at Viacom Erik Flannigan believes that “death to us would have been apathy. Death would have been no one talking, no one caring, no one having an opinion about it.”
Clearly people did talk about VGX, and from looking at the numbers, Flannigan said to Polygon, “It exceeded our expectations. Maybe the distribution of where the views came from was different than we may have thought, but we knew the consoles may be heavy and they were. In terms of total streams, we were very, very pleased. I think the number that shocked us most was the 32 minute session time. The idea that people were watching longer than a half hour show on television was, that was way beyond our wildest dreams.”
Despite that 30 minutes representing only a portion of the 3-hour stream, Erik explained, “So in our world, the idea that someone watched 32 minutes… well we can’t do the Nielsen math for you, but it would be a giant factor of what the rating was for that show.”
For the future of VGX, Executive Vice President of Event Production Casey Patterson revealed how they’re already talking about next year’s show, with the producers listening to the feedback. Addressing that feedback, Geoff Keighley added, “There was a lot of great feedback that came out of it. Sure, there were people calling for the date and time of my suicide, but there were people who also were saying very constructive things about the show.”
Joel McHale was also a subject of much ‘feedback’, but Patterson revealed that “we would welcome Joel on any of our networks, any of the time, including this show.” If next year’s VGX does happen, Patterson added, “We’ll produce that show, that stream in the same way we produced this year’s, which is to take the feedback of the gamers, good and bad.”
No matter your thoughts about VGX as a whole, there was an overwhelming response to No Man’s Sky from Hello Games. After initially getting cold feet and worrying the “trailer wouldn’t be good enough,” Keighley says the developers sent him an email about how “their lives have been changed by being on the show” and “now everyone is courting them.”
If everyone is truly courting Hello Games, which platforms do you hope to see the game on? Let us know in the comments below.
