Twitch doesn't just want to stream every game, they want to sell them too

Well, they’re already getting exclusive DLC for Twitch Premium/Amazon Prime members (nothing big yet) so I can almost guarantee that we’ll see exclusive games eventually.

I was okay with this until I learned they’ll be using their own launcher. Fuck. That.

As I understand it, while most streamers don’t make the bulk of their money from Twitch paying them for advertisements as a partner, every successful streamer is a Twitch partner. So I’m not sure why excluding non-partners is particularly meaningful-- their pages have always had ads, and they never made money off them.

Then I can only hope it will be stuff aimed at being streamed, which usually has no value to me.

Amazon does have their own studios so…

“Some”, sure. But are we going to see any worthwhile exclusive games? Amazon Game Studios sure isn’t going to produce them, judging by their track record and by the big names they hire leaving before even getting one game out.

So it’d really have to be buying exclusivity for third party games, just like the TV streaming model mostly works. Except the business model of games is dramatically different from that of TV shows.

Doesn’t it feel like it’s time to stop freaking about launchers? Whatever viable alternative to Steam that emerges is going to have to have a launcher.

I feel the same way. Mentally I fought the battle against launchers when Origin was giving away free games. Once they won me over, I say bring on the other launchers. Origin, Steam, GoG, UPlay, the more the merrier. Competition is good.

More serious competition for Steam is good (including for Steam).

I am not sold on the Twitch tie in though. That feels like a second tier feature you would add after you have your platform stood up and gained decent market share.

Still its a welcome move.

I’m waiting for a launcher that can seamlessly integrate all these launchers.

You can launch non-steam games from steam, so there already is one…

But it doesn’t integrate them in any meaningful way. it’s just sticking a shortcut in your library.

Are any of these players going to take less than 30%? That will be how you cause movement.

itch.io lets you decide how much they get. Its also the most developer friendly BY FAR of any distro platform out there. The downside is it brings you zero free marketing dollars in terms of discovery. Aside from that, its the best for devs, hands down.

I published a game on it this weekend in less than 30 mins. Now THATS ease of use! :)

Wait, so as an Amazon Prime member I automatically get a premium Twitch subscription?
I have learned something new today! Thank you thread!

Yup.

Awesome. It even comes with 20% off some new titles (boxed copies) and in game freebies for various games each month. Cool.

I don’t want an alternative to Steam. I like Steam. Will competition do it good? Sure, but it has that already. I certainly don’t want another launcher, I have enough of them now.

I don’t really care about a competitor either. But I also don’t care about another launcher. I’m laid back like that about how I access my PC games. I’ll even use a disc.

This is now live.