Plexstorm: Video Game Streaming for Grown Ups

By Gene Zorkin

While there’s little question adult content is more widely accepted, or at least more widely tolerated, than it has ever been, the controversial and agerestricted nature of pornography still imposes limits on the extent to which adult companies can promote and advertise their wares to mainstream markets with great crossover potential. This fact is perhaps most clear in the social media space, where the attitudes of the major platforms toward porn range from dead set against (Facebook comes to mind) to grudgingly accepting (think Twitter). Even in spaces where one can safely assume there’s a great deal of porn/mainstream crossover potential, like video gaming, that potential is choked off at the source, with platforms quickly removing adult content and banning users who violate their content and/or acceptable use policies. Where many people see an implacable barrier to growing their adult businesses, others see opportunity – a chance to provide platforms and sites which cater to the mainstream interests of consumers, while also openly, even enthusiastically accepting the display of adult content on their properties. When he looked at the video game streaming market, the popularity of the Twitch platform and Twitch’s zero tolerance approach toward sexually explicit content, Plexstorm founder JeyKey saw precisely the sort of opportunity mentioned above. Intuitively understanding that video games and adult entertainment shared an enormous number of customers in their respective consumer bases, he perceived Twitch’s rejection of porn as opening the

door to a potentially lucrative business model – and a means to address what he sees a lack of expressive freedom being imposed on gamers. Asked what inspired him to launch Plexstorm, JeyKey said it was the “lack and loss of freedom in live game streaming.” “Plexstorm is about creating a space for adults where they can make their content with more freedom – and not just adult content,” JeyKey told YNOT. “Streamers on other platforms are banned daily for making a bad joke taken out of context or for wearing clothes that are ‘too revealing.’ They can’t talk in-depth about mature or controversial themes.” JeyKey said that while many of these mainstream platforms’ rules are “understandably in place to appease mainstream advertisers, payment providers and of course, the law,” other rules imposed by the platforms “just seem to be a way to control the streamer’s content to reflect, or rather not oppose, their company’s ideals.” The idea of imposing such control on the platform’s users would be anathema to JeyKey, who considers user freedom a cornerstone of the Plexstorm corporate culture. “At Plexstorm, we do our best to provide streamers with the most freedom possible, while remaining objective and open to the diverse lifestyles, cultures and opinions that exist among the gaming community,” JeyKey said. The Plexstorm project quickly drew the interest of JuicyJay, the owner and founder of JuicyAds, who immediately saw the potential for adult-friendly video game streaming to blossom into something big. “I came onto the Plexstorm project as a co-founder shortly after the initial launch over a year ago,” JuicyJay told YNOT. “I’ve loved video games ever since I started playing them from the age of five or six, so working on a video game streaming company sounded awesome.” JuicyJay noted that “video games as a whole have come a long way and now there are billions and billions of dollars to be made directly with games.” “From my experience with JuicyAds, I see that video games in adult are pretty popular right now, but some of the games really suck,” JuicyJay added. “A platform like Plexstorm is a breath of fresh air because we are actually providing a real platform with real streaming and gaming offerings.” While it’s an understandable assumption that the core audience for a platform like Plexstorm is a youthful demographic, both JeyKey and JuicyJay see the potential for a broader and more diverse audience. “While there’s definitely interest in Plexstorm by older adults, I imagine many of them as a whole still aren’t aware of game streaming but the number of older adults, especially senior citizens, interested in video games is growing,” JeyKey said. “As well as the number of older gamers continuing to rise simply due to gamers growing older, while there may be a reduction in usage, those who grow up playing video games tend to continue playing throughout adulthood.” JuicyJay, meanwhile, told YNOT he began to see the potential of video game-streaming developing a more expansive appeal by way of being exposed to it through a key piece of video gaming pop culture. “When I saw the movie Ready Player One, it was actually the first time I heard of Twitch,” JuicyJay said. “Then a friend was talking about Fortnite and watching Twitch streams to get better at playing. Video game streaming is already mainstream and it has wide appeal. There are a lot of people like myself who have been playing video games for over 30 years and lots who have only begun. So yeah, I see Plexstorm as appealing to anyone who likes video games, regardless of age or gender.” As JuicyJay sees it, the key to capitalizing on mainstream crossover markets is finding areas of common ground with and between users, then letting nature take its course – with the assistance of some finely-tuned marketing and advertising, of course. “Connecting with people is all about similarities,” JuicyJay said. “Whenever you find people who share interests or have things in common, that’s where you see bonding, friendships, and genuine connections form. There is enormous value in reaching the Plexstorm audience because it is very specific and targeted. JuicyAds is handling the property exclusively for advertising sales. We don’t see a difference between offering adult or mainstream products or games to our audience, because it’s the same people who consume both adult and mainstream content regardless.” JeyKey added that when it comes to cam models who are also gamers, using an adult-friendly platform like Plexstorm “just makes sense.” “Many cam models come to Plexstorm to host NSFW streams, where they play games while they perform for their audience as they would on a cam site,” JeyKey said. “But it’s not just cam models that benefit from Plexstorm; gamers can’t play any adult games on other platforms and before we existed, the only

option was to record gameplay privately, censor it in editing and upload to their platform. For obvious reasons this just doesn’t work for streamers.” JeyKey added that by combining video games and pop culture with adult content “we can attract a larger and more mainstream audience than we likely would trying to make your average adult content site.” “Plexstorm has appeal not just for its adult content combined and gaming, but for the wider variety of SFW and NSFW content that comes from giving streamers more freedom,” JeyKey observed. “While it may be a niche, there’s still a world of possibilities in adult game streaming.” Of course, all this crossover potential doesn’t mean much without a means to monetize it – which is where partnering with someone with the kind of expertise and experience JuicyJay brings to the table will pay dividends. “It has been enormously expensive to build and maintain Plexstorm, so we are still growing and accepting investment,” JuicyJay noted. “That said, based on my projections, we expect profitability in Q2 2020, and that will come through the multiple revenue streams. As a live streaming platform first, we have a freemium model for our streams in the form of tipping, and there are subscriptions that provide premium features. Secondary revenues come from advertising and there are others that will go live in the near future.” As they plot the course for Plexstorm’s future, JeyKey and JuicyJay are keeping an ear to the ground, putting to use another phenomenon of the internet age – crowdsourcing. “Many of the features we have planned are community requested,” JeyKey said. “We greatly value our community’s input and want to create a great platform for them to grow their communities, monetize their content and reward their loyal fans.” JeyKey added that Plexstorm is more than open to receiving further suggestions on how to make the platform as enjoyable and useful as possible. “If you’d like to help provide suggestions or feedback to help improve Plexstorm, you can do so by joining the Plexstorm Community Discord server.” Whatever the source of its various ideas and features, the goal for Plexstorm isn’t merely to become an adult version of a mainstream concept, JuicyJay emphasized. “Plexstorm is not just an adult platform,” JuicyJay said. “We are filling that void between having an adult NSFW offering and having a mainstream SFW offering. The dream is not to be ‘the porn Twitch’ but instead to support ‘Freedom in Gaming’ which means both the nature of the games being played and the people playing them.”

About the Author

Gene Zorkin has been covering legal and political issues for various adult publications (and under a variety of different pen names) since 2002.