Video game streaming
Gaming streams of Ubisoft’s iconic and multi-layered platform fighter Brawlhalla are to benefit from the introduction of a state-of-the-art live captioning system that will make them more accessible for both the hearing impaired and non-native English speakers.
The video game developer best known for the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry series has teamed up with Cambridge-based Speechmatics — whose award-winning speech-to-text API engine is amongst the most advanced on the planet.
Brawlhalla, which is free-to-play, has a community of over 80 million players worldwide across mobile, console and PC platforms and is currently the most popular fighting game on Steam.
Within the frenetically-paced platform brawler originally developed by Atlanta-based Blue Mammoth Games, characters use blasters, katars, rocket lances, canons, swords and spears to force opponents into blast zones and live streams are an important aspect of community interaction and game immersion.
The enhanced captioning from Speechmatics will be available in esports tournaments as well as the games’ twice-weekly developer streams and can be enjoyed on multiple platforms including YouTube, Twitch and Discord.
Evolving entertainment
Accessibility in video games has been a hot topic over the past couple of years with titles such as Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II leading the way.
Despite additional developments on the hardware side in the shape of Microsoft’s XBox adaptive controller, a 2020 report by U.K. disability charity Scope revealed that 66% of gamers with disabilities or impairments said they face barriers or issues relating to their experience of video games.
As far as streaming goes, many Generation Xers who grew up in the late 1970s and 80s during the advent of early home gaming systems such as those manufactured by Atari and Sinclair Research, remain perplexed and befuddled by the streaming phenomenon.
Why, after all, would anyone choose to spend time watching strangers play a video game when one can easily replicate the experience and be right at the heart of the action themselves?
Nevertheless, streaming is seriously popular with Amazon-owned Twitch attracting some 17.5 million daily users and generating 600 billion hours of gameplay in 2019.
The allure of streaming is myriad — from fostering a sense of community and helping gamers to develop new skills to offering valuable pre-purchase consumer research. Streams additionally provide a fun lean-back experience for those wanting to skip the intensity and concentration required for gameplay from time to time.
Despite growing popularity, content on online streaming platforms is yet to fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and while auto-captioning options such as those provided by YouTube are rapidly improving – accuracy levels still leave a lot to be desired as does their suitability for real-time experiences like gaming.
Speed and immersion
Speechmatics’ API plugs directly into Brawlhalla and then, after capturing the audio, the engine sends a real-time text feed to a custom Wowza Engine, which inserts the text stream and sends the whole package off to its final destination in the viewer’s home.
A custom dictionary allows the development team to instantly add niche terminology in real time related to the game’s characters and environments that would not normally be present in the technology’s training data sets.
Though only available in English language at present, there are plans to roll out to other languages as soon as possible and to continue to provide unparalleled transcription and captioning across the board through the company’s proprietary technology.
Not only is Speechmatics differentiated in the market by its ability to handle subtle variations in regional accents, pitch and tone but it is also capable of dealing with noisy environments such as might be found in competitive gaming streams.
Commenting on the partnership, Ricardo Herreros-Symons, a founding member of Speechmatics says, “Personally, I’m delighted that Speechmatics is partnering with Brawlhalla to increase the accessibility of a game loved by tens of millions around the world. Having grown up playing many similar games, I know how fun they can be and it’s a real pleasure to know that now even more people can share in that experience.”
In a media announcement, Speechmatics CEO Katy Wigdahl said:
“As an industry that is bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined, there is no doubt that gaming has huge potential to lead the way on accessibility. There has already been some great progress in this, with a wide range of adaptive controllers and display options available to most games and platforms, but there’s more to be done.”
Mateo Palfreman, Manager of Stream Production at Brawlhalla added:
“Accessibility is increasingly part of the day-to-day fabric of game development at Ubisoft. The past few years have seen tremendous progress, with increased awareness, changing attitudes and practices across the board. We recognize our responsibility to include as many players as possible and Speechmatics provides the most accurate real-time speech-to-text on the market.”
The new partnership is further proof, if ever it was needed, that as new media and consumer viewing habits evolve, so must accessibility provisions keep pace to avoid sizable communities being left behind. Technological innovation is a vital tool for achieving this but is best leveraged through inclusivity-focused collaboration.
