The SDHQ Patreon Is Getting Exclusive Content And A Finer Focus Is Coming To The Website

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Being able to play and write about video games for a living has been a dream come true, and it’s all thanks to our amazing readers. You guys coming to the website and reading our articles, watching our videos, and interacting with us have been amazing, and I can’t thank you all enough. This has been such an amazing journey so far, and I can’t wait to see where it will take us in the future.

However, we are facing some tough times. While our workload hasn’t slowed down and we’ve been getting amazing opportunities, AI search summaries and scraping have started to affect our traffic. It’s something I’ve seen first-hand as our information is used in Google’s AI search summaries, and it’s disheartening to see.

Because of this, we are going to be making some changes to our posting here on the website, as well as some big changes to our Patreon to make it more worthwhile. Patreon and directly supporting us help significantly in times like this. So, let's look at some of the big changes coming to Patreon and our website.

Website/YouTube

Starting with the website changes, there won’t be much that changes our daily posts. We are going to be reducing the amount of general gaming news we cover and focusing more on Steam Deck-specific, handheld, and Nintendo news. While I know some are curious why we would cover Nintendo news and reviews, I believe it still fits in our handheld focus due to the Switch 2 being a handheld console. We don't cover Nintendo nearly as frequently as Steam Deck and PC games, and we will always prioritize PC/Steam Deck over Nintendo titles. Still, we want to offer our thoughts on them.

This may also end up meaning fewer articles will be posted on the website every day, but they will be more targetted with a tigher focus.

On top of that, we are going to be expanding our YouTube offerings. It will take some time, but we are working on a flow that will allow easier and more frequent gameplay recording to streamline video editing for me. One of the reasons it has taken me so long to do some videos is due to the time needed to record gameplay, and I usually wait to record until I have finished my review, so I know which areas and places to prioritize. While that hasn't changed and won't change for future reviews, I am working on a new workflow with our freelancers to get footage more easily and quickly so we can post videos more often.

I do have some other ideas in terms of live streaming as well, but that will take some time for me to figure out and fine-tune the idea. I have one so far that I really like, but it needs more time to cook before I am ready to announce it. However, I can say that it will involve the community and what they want to see directly.

Patreon

Now, let's talk about some of the changes coming to Patreon. Initially, I wanted to avoid making exclusive content, as I am someone who wants everyone to see what we are working on, but our backs are getting too close to the wall, so we decided to try it out.

First, we are bringing back The SDHQ Podcast and making it completely Patreon exclusive. The show used to be public, but with both of our co-hosts bowing out at the time and our work piling up, I wasn't able to continue. However, we are bringing it back with a new co-host, one of our freelancers/contributors, Nick Hanchet. It will be similar to the original podcast, going over news and talking about the latest updates, but may include some special information about our upcoming events and ideas that we haven't announced publicly, and special guests.

The first episode of our new podcast has been posted today and will be posted every Monday, giving you something new to listen to at the beginning of the week.

Next, we are bringing an exclusive video series to Patrons. Our weekly Classics on Deck article is coming back after a brief hiatus, and with it, we are making a video series that will be on Patreon. These videos will show direct gameplay and go over how we set up each game on the Deck. I am still deciding whether this will be fully exclusive or timed-exclusive, but if it is timed, it will be a significant difference, with it taking three weeks or a month for that video to get released on YouTube. New videos will be released weekly, with commentary from me and our freelancer/contributor who works on the series, Oliver Stogden. This is a type of video that I would like the public to see as well, so I am leaning towards timed-exclusive, but I still want to make it worthwhile to Patrons.

Another new exclusive video we will be posting to Patreon will be VLOGs. We go to so many incredible events and will begin documenting them, showing off what we do each day, and some of the games we try out. This will mainly be for big events and will be uploaded either on the same day of that event or the day after. This means we may have 3-4 VLOGs for one event, possibly more if we do a roundup at the end, talking about the experience.

Finally, we will also be starting to host game nights! These will happen once every two weeks, and after we all choose a game, we will get into Patreon-exclusive Discord channels or server and all play the game together. There will be some free game nights over on our main Discord server as well, but they will not be as frequent. We are open to ideas about whether we should record or stream it, or ways to choose different games and host the game nights, but participating in these bi-weekly game nights will be for Patrons only.

The stream idea I had will also involve some input that only Patrons can give, and I do have some ideas for exclusive interviews (most likely timed). I am currently discussing an interview with one team, who have already said they are interested. I am still figuring out how best to progress here to keep it appealing to Patrons and fair to those who don't subscribe.

The new exclusive video content will be available only to our two highest tiers, which are currently the $6.50 and $10 tiers. However, we are also going to reduce the $6.50 tier to $5 starting today. Currently, I feel the $3 tier being mainly for getting rid of ads on our website is fair for the price, so there won't be anything else added to it right now (though that may change). I am working on some exclusives for the $10 tier, which may include merch, but I have nothing to announce yet.

Regardless of the tier chosen, just know that we appreciate you guys a lot, and it means the world to us. Thank you for going to the website, reading our work, and watching our videos, it pushes us to work harder every day. Patreon will allow us to not worry about AI stealing our work, and, hopefully, one day, we can get to the point where ads are no longer necessary and remove them.

You can access the new perks and ad-less viewing experience by subscribing to our Patreon, and we thank everyone who decides to support us this way. It's a dream come true being able to do this for work, and I appreciate it. Thank you for using SDHQ, and look forward to some awesome new reviews coming soon!

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