Amazon’s live video-streaming service Twitch is getting into e-commerce for its most important content category.
“Twitch has always been the best place to watch, share, and play games. Soon, it will be the best place to buy games as well,” announced the company in a blog post yesterday.
Twitch is launching its own digital games store, complete with digital ‘loot crates’ of rewards for anyone who spends more than $4.99. And the company will be sharing the revenues with its creators.
“Soon, when you watch a stream, you’ll see an option to purchase below the video on the channel page if the game or in-game content is available on Twitch,” it explained.
“When you buy, if the streamer is a partner who has opted into the program, he or she gets a 5% share of the revenue.”
Essentially, this is Twitch going into competition with the Steam digital games store (often described as the ‘iTunes of PC gaming’) – but with a network of influencers supporting it.
Only ‘partnered’ streamers will get a revenue share, although any stream using a game that’s available through Twitch will have the links added.
It will be interesting to see whether the launch spurs Twitch stars to play more of the games that the platform is selling, and less that it’s not.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…