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The ongoing battle of Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg to maintain the biggest channel on YouTube has been turned into a video game.
The game, Zero DeathPlace Kjellberg in a post-apocalyptic setting where he has to defend his fiancée Marzia against an army of sub-robots (fake YouTube subscribers) who are trying to destroy the world. This is an obvious allusion to the ongoing battle between Kjellberg and T-Series, a popular Bollywood chain accused of using sub-robots to increase the number of its subscribers.
This battle is taking place at a very interesting time on YouTube. Independent creators who have helped make YouTube a platform today feel like they are being chased away by traditional film studios, television networks and music labels such as T-Series. Zero DeathThe developer of, said he was fascinated by this conflict and wanted to turn his tension between David and Goliath into a game.
Zero Death is designed by independent developer Thomas Brush, who based the game on details from Kjellberg's vlogs. The game is not officially connected to PewDiePie, but Brush says he has received permission from Kjellberg to create it. The game is coming out today on the Ichi.io independent game publishing platform.
Kjellberg fans have rallied in recent months to increase its subscriber base to the T-series, but Brush said: The edge this he has no interest in knowing who wins or who loses. "I think companies should be able to have as much influence as individuals, and vice versa," Brush said. His real concern is that YouTube could tip the balance in favor of big business rather than small creators. "Now, if YouTube started to show favor on one side, I would have concerns," he said.
Zero Death tries to keep the focus on YouTube's broader cultural shift, rather than on Kjellberg's immediate battle with T-Series. The Bollywood chain has never been named for fear that people think the game is taking sides, said Brush. (Although fans know what Brush is referring to when they encounter menacing sub-robots, the enemies and landscape of the game are sprinkled with Ts, drawn on the T series logo.)
"I'm simply engaging in this concept of PewDiePie as opposed to what would happen to the world if the Internet was suddenly manipulated, the algorithms changed, the sub-robots replaced, and that's PewDiePie's job to fight against. that, "said Brush.
As someone who has worked with many YouTube creators in the past, including big names in the game like Jacksepticeye and Kjellberg for a game called stripes – Brush says he's just a fan of YouTube culture.
Although Brush thinks the fight is a "small fun phenomenon on the Internet," he acknowledged that the conversation speaks volumes. It's a conversation about what it means to be a creator on YouTube in 2019, when there are more than 2 billion active users each month and over 500 hours of downloaded content every hour.
"I think everyone is in agreement that democracy on YouTube is what makes it beautiful," Brush said. "That's why it exploded; it's the idea that no matter who, whoever you are, no matter what you do, can become the next PewDiePie or the T series. "
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