Twitch announced today it’s partnering with a variety of developers and studios, including Ubisoft and Telltale Games, to sell games directly to players via Twitch streams.
Viewers will see a button giving them the option to purchase the game just under the main window on a streamers’ page. It can be seen in the photo below. As an extra incentive, when viewers purchase a game through a streamer’s page, the streamer will get five percent of the sale and the viewer purchasing the game will receive a free Twitch Crate. Crate’s come with randomized items that are tailored to specific Twitch streamers and allows the owner of said crate to drop exclusive emotes, chat badges and “Bits for Cheering” while watching that streamer.
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Games purchased via Twitch can be played via the company’s desktop app or through existing developer and publisher-owned services like UPlay, according to a press release. It appears that games downloaded through Twitch won’t be available to be played through services like Steam, but Polygon has reached out for clarification. Valve isn’t listed as one of the developers teaming up with Twitch. As a result, Valve-owned games, like Dota 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, two of the most popular games broadcasted via Twitch, will not be available to purchase via the streaming service. Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends, is also not listed as a participating studio.
Developers like Ubisoft, Telltale Games, Digital Extremes, Hi-Rez Studios, tinyBuild, Paradox Interactive, Trion Worlds and Vlambeer will participate in the new sales initiative. When games are sold via stream, the developer will take 70 percent of the profit and Twitch will take 25 percent.
“Since the streamer gets a revenue share of purchases made, this is a great way to further support streamers who educate and entertain viewers,” Todd Harris, co-founder and COO of Rez Studios, said in a press release.
Neither Twitch nor the developers listed above have announced which games will be available to purchase through streamers’ channels yet. The promotional photo Twitch released, as seen above, seems to confirm Ubisoft’s The Division will be one of the first games viewers can purchase through the streaming service.
Twitch viewers will be able to purchase certain games via streams starting this spring.
