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.
One might think Twitch is at the top of its game right now with all its recent success, including the record-breaking Fortnite broadcast with Ninja and Drake — not to mention the popularity of the game itself on the service — and this year's debut of the Overwatch League, which continues to bring in viewers each week. Unfortunately, the Amazon-owned company has still resorted to layoffs, letting roughly 25 people go this week as part of a "team adjustments" effort.
Fortnite seems to be the game everyone is talking about at the moment, but that success isn't only benefiting Epic Games. Twitch has also been running a Prime promotion that hands out free Fortnite loot to anyone who signs up, and that has caused a lot of streamers - notably Ninja, who now holds the crown as the most popular streamer on Twitch - to see an influx of subscribers. Twitch is looking to keep the gravy train going by adding more loot to its Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack, which will be available from here on out.
Twitch users who are also Amazon Prime subscribers already get a number of different perks by linking their two accounts. Since its inception, Twitch Prime has offered a selection of freebies each month, from ad-free viewing and free Twitch channel subscriptions to in-game bonuses and even free games. Twitch is about to expand its free game offerings significantly with a new program it calls Free Games with Prime.