Streaming Service Twitch Will Soon Be a Retail Outlet for Buying PC Games and DLC, a Lot Like Steam
The concept of the “Steam sale” is known far and wide in the gaming community as a straight assault on the wallets of thrifty gamers. For no nefarious reason at all, Steam just has these bouts of giving out super deals on some very popular games new and old. Gamers, just like everyone else, like to keep an eye out for a good deal. Starting this spring, Steam is going to get some serious competition as the streaming service Twitch will enter into the distribution game, offering a service similar to that used by Steam and Amazon.
In the next few months, we will see Twitch allowing “partnered” streamers to sell games right from their Twitch page. The streamers will earn 5% of the revenue for games purchased through their unique page. The remaining revenue will be split 70% – 25% between publishers/ developers and Twitch respectively. Publishers like the Twitch-partnered Ubisoft will also have an option to snag that extra 5% if someone purchases a game Like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon or For Honor directly off the developer’s Twitch page.
Questions have been raised as to the effect this new sales model will have on the integrity of the strong streaming community on Twitch but perhaps more interesting is how successful the new model will or won’t be. It’s going to be hard to compete with the crazy Steam sales, and unlike on Amazon, the new Twitch program will not allow gamers to preorder upcoming games at all, although it looks like that is something Twitch is considering adding eventually. Robin Fontaine, Twitch’s Marketing Director has said, “Gamers are already coming to Twitch to discover and learn about games they want to buy. Developers are looking for ways to tap into this audience and offer content when they are most engaged.”
It is probably true that we gamers are at our weakest when we get a little taste of a quality game. If we head over to Twitch to check out a super-appealing game and get to see someone having fun with it in real time, all they really need to do is dangle a “purchase now” option in front of us and we will probably click on it. If Twitch can couple this service with the kinds of sales that have made Steam so popular, they could have a huge money-maker on their hands. As long as this service doesn’t push streamers to constantly beg and plead their watchers to make purchases, it should be just as Twitch has said, a “win, win, win”!