Over the past several years, streaming platform Twitch has grown to become one of the most popular websites in the world, but it just suffered a pretty major setback. The website has been banned in China, making the it latest in a string of restrictions focused on cracking down on gaming. As China is one of the largest gaming markets in the world, being shut out from operating there is a big blow indeed.
In recent years, Twitch has hosted a variety of marathons centered around everything from The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood to Mystery Science Theater 3000 and even Power Rangers. These marathons lasted for days or weeks at a time, but all of them pale in comparison to the next marathon Twitch has on deck: Pokemon. Starting next week, Twitch will begin broadcasting Pokemon from the very first episode in a marathon that's going to last a very long time.
Twitch will end the ad-free experience for Amazon Prime customers, the company has announced. The decision follows a re-evaluation of the Twitch Prime benefits, the company explained, saying the free viewing experience for monthly Prime users will continue until October 15. However, the change will apply for new member beginning September 14.
On Friday the world got an early peek at a Twitch-like live streaming platform from Valve. The site Steam.tv went live for a brief period of time, showcasing a stream from Valve's own annual Dota 2 tournament, The International 2018. Shortly after, the site was pulled and left with a blank page, although Valve has confirmed that the platform is real and was only made public by accident.
Twitch has sent out an alert notifying users of a bug that left some private messages exposed. The company says it has fixed the bug, but that "a small percentage" of messages were visible in the archives of other users, making them accessible to whomever happened to see them. The bug resulted from Twitch's recent removal of Messages.
Tickets for TwitchCon 2018 are now available to purchase. The company launched sales today for the event that starts October 26 in California. Sales are offered online through the TwitchCon website, where multiple options are provided. Those interested in keeping costs down can get single ticket starting at $89 USD, but there's also a three-day pass available at a discount over the on-site rate.
Prime Day is quickly approaching, and this time around, it will have a lot of perks for Twitch Prime users as well. Amazon is taking its usual free game deals that are available through Twitch Prime to an extreme, handing out at least one new game each day from July 2 to July 17. Generally, Twitch Prime only offers four or five games a month, but throughout July, you're getting a grand total of 21.
Another Games Done Quick marathon has come to an end, and like many of the organization's recent marathons, Summer Games Done Quick 2018 managed to set a pretty impressive record by the time everything was said and done. When all of the donations were counted up, Summer Games Done Quick 2018 managed to raise an eye-watering $2,129,894. That isn't an exact amount just yet, as there are always some donations that come in after the event ends.
The speedrunning community has a big week ahead of it, as Summer Games Done Quick 2018 kicks off today. Considering the reach of these twice-yearly Games Done Quick marathons, there's a good chance you already know what SGDQ 2018 is, and that's especially true if you're already a member of the speedrunning community. If you're new to speedrunning, here's everything you need to know about SGDQ 2018.
Facebook has launched a dedicated game-streaming hub to take on Twitch and, to a lesser extent, YouTube. The hub aggregates video game livestreams on the social network, making it easier for Fortnite and other game fans to find their favorite players. To simplify getting to the hub, Facebook has made it available under Fb.gg.
This week the folks at Twitch responsible for non-gaming content announced they're bringing Doctor Who into the mix. They'll be pushing over 500 original Doctor Who episodes to the streaming video platform, all from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. That's the beginning of the show in 1963 through the 1980s, all broadcast on Twitch over a seven-week period.
Back in the 2016, the then-freshly-formed Amazon Game Studios revealed its first three big titles: Breakaway, New World, and Crucible. Of these, Breakaway seemed to be the furthest along in development and Amazon's best chance to break into the growing eSports scene. Unfortunately, it seems Breakaway wasn't meant to be.