The first domino fell years ago. Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope shared a clip of an anime dog girl laughing along with the iconic Rare platformer's sound effects, captioned: "I love it!" I loved it, too. I didn't really know what it was or where it came from, but it was cute and in the moment that was enough. That anime dog girl was Inugami Korone, one of the dozens of streamers under vtubing agency hololive of Japanese company Cover. Fast-forward a few years – years filled with a frankly alarming number of shockingly good hololive fan games and, now, officially sanctioned fan games – and you'll find me in a call with the CEO of Cover, Motoaki Tanigo, often called Yagoo by Western hololive fans, digging into the future of the company and the tech it's built on.
Vtubing is big, only getting bigger, and hololive is one of the biggest names in the business – by several metrics, the biggest. I was recently in Osaka, Japan for a Monster Hunter Wilds hands-on preview event and happened to recognize hololive talent Hoshimachi Suisei on a large billboard at the heart of a busy shopping district. Just last week, hololive talent Usada Pekora was nominated for best content creator at The Game Awards 2024, Tanigo watching from the audience. More importantly, at least to me, hololive has the strongest gaming arm by far. There's significant and increasing overlap in games and vtubing, both in what games are made and how they're discovered. Hololive has seen partnerships and cameos with the likes of Among Us, Disgaea, Paladins, Valkyrie Profile, Tales of, Sonic the Hedgehog, Metal Gear, and a lot more.
