Twitch to start selling video games this week
techcrunch.com
Twitch to start selling video games this week
1–10 of 107 posts
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#2[deleted]
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#3Twitch Desktop specifically looks to be competing with Steam and Discord. Everybody wants to be the home of gamers, but somehow I doubt Twitch is going to break down Steam's chokehold on playing games (with Steam friends), but am only lightly skeptical that they can't put a dent into Discord's share of 'chat,' especially since Twitch and Discord share so many of the same principles, most notably strong anonymity features.
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#4Twitch Desktop specifically looks to be competing with Steam and Discord. Everybody wants to be the home of gamers, but somehow I doubt Twitch is going to break down Steam's chokehold on playing games (with Steam friends), but am only lightly skeptical that they can't put a dent into Discord's share of 'chat,' especially since Twitch and Discord share so many of the same principles, most notably strong anonymity feat…
They do have the might of Amazon behind them, so the best they can hope for is some exclusives.
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#5On the one hand, it's great that there are more places to sell games and more ways for game developers to be paid. This can improve the ecosystem.
On the other hand, Twitch manufactures its cultural bonafides. As opposed to Valve, who makes great games, Twitch sponsors conferences, runs an elaborate developer relations team, and makes a lot of strategic investments in other games.
Authenticity matters a lot to gamers. Valve earned it. This affiliate advertising program would seem to undermine authenticity.
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#6Twitch Desktop specifically looks to be competing with Steam and Discord. Everybody wants to be the home of gamers, but somehow I doubt Twitch is going to break down Steam's chokehold on playing games (with Steam friends), but am only lightly skeptical that they can't put a dent into Discord's share of 'chat,' especially since Twitch and Discord share so many of the same principles, most notably strong anonymity feat…
Keep in mind they acquired Curse, so are very likely looking to go after part of Discord's market share.
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#7Time for YouTube to partner-up with Steam and allow Steam affiliate links and/or buy buttons, before it's too late and all the major gaming streamers on YouTube move to Twitch?
Speaking of monetization models, YouTube is also leaving a lot of money on the table, or will soon enough, when it comes to podcasters that right now are forced to use subscription services such as Patreon to fund their channels. Why doesn't YouTube offer a more "built-in" alternative to that?
I'm not suggesting these because I want Google to be richer, but because I fear that one day Google will wake-up and realize that a lot of major YouTubers prefer doing anything but using its text and pre-roll ads. It could then decide to ban all of those people who don't use those exact type of ads that YouTube offers. So I'd rather they start adopting alternative monetization models that make it easier for Youtubers to make money the way they want to.
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#8Twitch Desktop specifically looks to be competing with Steam and Discord. Everybody wants to be the home of gamers, but somehow I doubt Twitch is going to break down Steam's chokehold on playing games (with Steam friends), but am only lightly skeptical that they can't put a dent into Discord's share of 'chat,' especially since Twitch and Discord share so many of the same principles, most notably strong anonymity feat…
Don't forget, Twitch bought Curse, a company known for catering to gamers:
- the longtime Curse Client, effectively an addon manager that started for World of Warcraft but now supports games like Rift, Skyrim, Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program
- CurseForge, the community site behind addon hosting and development
- the recent "Curse Voice" VOIP and chat client that is a direct competitor to Discord, and which got subsumed with the mod manager into the "Curse App"
- Gamepedia, a wiki host for video game wikis
Together with built-in streaming and just enough social networking, Twitch Desktop combines the best of Curse and Twitch to create a gamer hub that has more value-add than Steam -- largely a storefront -- and is similar to the new Blizzard App (previously known as the Blizzard Launcher or the Battle.net Launcher).
Blizzard's offering streams to Facebook Live, integrates with Facebook login, has a barebones but recently enhanced VOIP chat, and is the competitor with the most direct feature parity -- but captive to a publisher, and outsources all streaming to a third party.
7 months ago when Facebook announced that they're building a gaming hub, I wrote [1] that I'm not opposed to some social-ness in gaming, but real-name-based Facebook isn't the network most people want to conduct their gaming on.
Twitch is a gaming-focused YouTube and pseudonymous social network that can now offer a featureful, streaming, social, and chat application for download, and they're backed by a corporate parent that likes to sell you stuff. This is a pretty good match.
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#9On the one hand, it's great that there are more places to sell games and more ways for game developers to be paid. This can improve the ecosystem. On the other hand, Twitch manufactures its cultural bonafides. As opposed to Valve, who makes great games, Twitch sponsors conferences, runs an elaborate developer relations team, and makes a lot of strategic investments in other games. Authenticity matters a lot to gamers…
I dunno, Twitch has a huge audience they developed mostly naturally by being free, reliable, and having some nice features for both streamers and viewers.
I don't know that this translates to game sales, though, especially because the majority of Twitch viewership goes to F2P games.
Re: Twitch to start selling video games this week
#10On the one hand, it's great that there are more places to sell games and more ways for game developers to be paid. This can improve the ecosystem. On the other hand, Twitch manufactures its cultural bonafides. As opposed to Valve, who makes great games, Twitch sponsors conferences, runs an elaborate developer relations team, and makes a lot of strategic investments in other games. Authenticity matters a lot to gamers…
Valve isn't without its faults though. I've talked to plenty of people who are somewhat tired of the chokehold Steam seems to have on the gaming ecosystem. They may not be exactly destroying their image with mistakes like this past Christmas[0], but I imagine they're not fostering a lot of loyalty.
[0]http://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/steam-offline-after-secur...