Amazon’s streaming service Twitch to start selling video games
Players will receive 5 per cent of the game content sold through their pages, a payment the online giant expects will lead to the creation of more content, drawing more viewers and increasing sales in a virtuous cycle
Amazon’s Twitch, a popular streaming service where video-gaming fans watch their favourite gamers play, is taking a page from its corporate parent – by selling the games itself.
The move will pitch Twitch, a YouTube-like social platform, against existing electronic game bazaars built by the likes of Valve, Activision and others. But unlike those marketplaces, Twitch’s effort is tightly linked to video-game streaming sessions, and is designed in part to direct cash to the players who create the content that draws millions to the site.
“Our goal is not to become a game store,” says Matt McCloskey, vice-president of commerce for Twitch. “Our goal is to grow the social network that is Twitch.”
The initiative will be launched in the spring, and works like this: fans watching their favourite streaming player slay dragons or race cars on Twitch can click on a button to buy the same game, or virtual trinkets related to it. The streamers get a 5 per cent cut of game content sold on their pages – a payment that adds to other compensation, such as a share of advertising revenue, subscriptions and outright gifts from fans. (Games can also be purchased from their own dedicated game pages.)
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This model helps game developers generate sales because it targets shoppers who are obviously interested in a specific game at the moment when they’re likely to be most excited about it. Game publishers will get 70 per cent of the revenue, the standard rate for online marketplaces overseen by Valve, Google and Apple.
As for Twitch, which Amazon bought for US$1 billion in 2014, the new strategy gives it an Amazon-like opportunity to make money, as it gets a 25 per cent cut of the sale.