Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#1

Post by rch » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse
techcrunch.com

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#2

Post by nacs » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 9:59 PM UTC

Curse is terrible. It's like the (current) Sourceforge of gaming sites. I seriously don't know why Twitch/Amazon would consider acquiring it.

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#3

Post by icehawk219 » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:00 PM UTC

nacs wrote: post #2

Curse is terrible. It's like the (current) Sourceforge of gaming sites. I seriously don't know why Twitch/Amazon would consider acquiring it.

I've seen quite a few large streamers getting paid to switch off Discord and promote Curse's chat client. If anything that's probably what Twitch is after but I'd be curious why they didn't pick up Discord then since it seems to be more widely used.

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#4

Post by ben_jones » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:07 PM UTC

nacs wrote: post #2

Curse is terrible. It's like the (current) Sourceforge of gaming sites. I seriously don't know why Twitch/Amazon would consider acquiring it.

Curse has tendrils in dozens if not hundreds of niche gaming sites, all with ravenously loyal fans with really high usage rates. When I was a kid I wanted to improve one of their data visualizations so I sent an admin an email about it and they never got back to me :-(.

Edit: I really hope their isn't a consolidation of gaming communities like Twitch is trying to do because it's only going to pander to the lowest common denominator, which in gaming tends to be absolutely cringeworthy.

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#5

Post by niftich » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:15 PM UTC

Previous; announcement from Twitch: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12300381

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#6

Post by SandersAK » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:17 PM UTC

nacs wrote: post #2

Curse is terrible. It's like the (current) Sourceforge of gaming sites. I seriously don't know why Twitch/Amazon would consider acquiring it.

Discord is starting to reveal their ability to pull streamer communities off of Twitch.

This is most likely a bulkhead acquisition to anticipate the growth of Discord and to try and keep those same streamers in the fold.

Twitch gets the massive community reach of Curse, plus they also get all the current momentum Curse has to be a Discord competitor.

It's a fantastic acquisition, if a little defensive.

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#7

Post by tgb » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:36 PM UTC

SandersAK wrote: post #6

nacs wrote: post #2

Curse is terrible. It's like the (current) Sourceforge of gaming sites. I seriously don't know why Twitch/Amazon would consider acquiring it.

Discord is starting to reveal their ability to pull streamer communities off of Twitch. This is most likely a bulkhead acquisition to anticipate the growth of Discord and to try and keep those same streamers in the fold. Twitch gets the massive community reach of Curse, plus they also get all the current momentum Curse has to be a Discord competitor. It's a fantastic acquisition, if a little defensive.

I'm not familiar with it, so how is discord a competitor to twitch? It looks like a newer TeamSpeak to me.

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#8

Post by cocotino » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:45 PM UTC

nacs wrote: post #2

Curse is terrible. It's like the (current) Sourceforge of gaming sites. I seriously don't know why Twitch/Amazon would consider acquiring it.

I don't even know what Curse is, but I use wowpedia every day, I hope they don't screw it up.

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#9

Post by Macha » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:45 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #7

SandersAK wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is starting to reveal their ability to pull streamer communities off of Twitch. This is most likely a bulkhead acquisition to anticipate the growth of Discord and to try and keep those same streamers in the fold. Twitch gets the massive community reach of Curse, plus they also get all the current momentum Curse has to be a Discord competitor. It's a fantastic acquisition, if a little defensive.

I'm not familiar with it, so how is discord a competitor to twitch? It looks like a newer TeamSpeak to me.

Are streamers hosting their chats on Discord as opposed to Twitch's chat system, which tends to break down after a certain level of activity?

Only thing I can think of.

Re: Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

#10

Post by Thaxll » Tue, Aug 16, 2016, 10:47 PM UTC

icehawk219 wrote: post #3

nacs wrote: post #2

Curse is terrible. It's like the (current) Sourceforge of gaming sites. I seriously don't know why Twitch/Amazon would consider acquiring it.

I've seen quite a few large streamers getting paid to switch off Discord and promote Curse's chat client. If anything that's probably what Twitch is after but I'd be curious why they didn't pick up Discord then since it seems to be more widely used.

Discord is probably too expensive / not for sale.