Amazon Buying Twitch

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Amazon is buying Twitch? Wait, I thought Google was buying Twitch?

Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.
 
This bad or good? I would think Google would be a better partner but what do I know
 
It's been my belief Amazon is going to burst pretty heavily onto the gaming scene in the next couple years. That there will be first party developed games and Twitch hints at an Amazon fenced portal.

And of course I'm sure Prime will figure into it heavily somehow.
 
Also, in short, I think Amazon will do far more interesting things with Twitch than Google would have.
 
So muting everyone's past broadcast was Amazon's idea and not Google.
I better start sending the Hate mail to the correct buyer...lol
 
So muting everyone's past broadcast was Amazon's idea and not Google.
I better start sending the Hate mail to the correct buyer...lol

Actually it was Twitch's lawyers idea. You simply can't throw up copyright music on an archived basis and expect it not to eventually land you attention when you start making real money off doing something like live streaming.

Twitch isn't fucking with live streams (yet...) so in order to actually make themselves worthy of buying they had to be sure it wasn't going to be a legal nightmare for whoever wanted to buy them.

I'm betting that Google wanted more for their money then Amazon did. I'm also betting Google had some really deep cuts it wanted to make to the staff , infrastructure and how they handle their audience. Amazon paid less but gave Twitch its freedom as part of the deal. Amazon is a huge brand with a massive cloud bank.

Most importantly of all.. Amazon is now a direct competitor to Google on all fronts. Amazon now has a lock down on the best streaming service , a huge growing audience and that means Google won't be able to just monopolize the entire industry. Google will now actually have to "compete" and that's something they haven't had to do in terms of providing video streaming services ..just about ever.

The next few years will be VERY interesting. Everyone should view this move versus Google ownership as a great thing. Competition is the best outcome we could have hoped for and we fucking GOT IT!
 
It's been my belief Amazon is going to burst pretty heavily onto the gaming scene in the next couple years. That there will be first party developed games and Twitch hints at an Amazon fenced portal.

And of course I'm sure Prime will figure into it heavily somehow.

I see this as highly possible with a possible fire TV type console in the future?
 
I know some Bioshock Infinite dev's landed at Amazon to work on unannounced projects.
 
I'd rather see Amazon then Google buy them at this point. Maybe Google will step up on streaming on youTube because its not that great right now.
 
The next few years will be VERY interesting. Everyone should view this move versus Google ownership as a great thing. Competition is the best outcome we could have hoped for and we fucking GOT IT!

It's still a small company being absorbed by a very large company. So it does reduce competition in a way.

Amazon and Google are not so different.
 
Woke up from my nap and Amazon buys Twitch.tv. At least initially this seems awesome to me!
 
Am I the only one who has never seen the point of Twitch or similar services?

Pretty obvious what the point is. If you don't like watching people play games, it's pointless for you. I love watching SC2 matches.
 
It's still a small company being absorbed by a very large company. So it does reduce competition in a way.

Amazon and Google are not so different.

Except they definitely are in competition with each other and Amazon tends to give its acquisitions a lot more autonomy (Audible has done very well under the Amazon umbrella) ... little companies are innovative but it is hard for them to get the cash needed to implement their visions sometimes ... a flexible parent company with deep pockets can definitely preserve the innovation of the smaller company but provide the deeper pockets of the bigger company for expansion and idea implementation ;)
 
It's still a small company being absorbed by a very large company. So it does reduce competition in a way.

Amazon and Google are not so different.

Its more like a giant company getting some skin into the live streaming game. Now that Google can't just "buy" its way in with a competitor on similar footing they will instead have to improve their streaming service (which sucks for live streaming by the way).

Amazon and Google shouldn't be too different as them competing at every level just makes it better for the consumer.

Twitch's massive growth was only going to skyrocket if no one bought them. It would have made them more valuable but Twitch doesn't have the infrastructure to support what it wants to achieve and provide for a thriving community.

Amazon's cloud servers can easily deal with that problem almost immediately.
 
Amazon has servers all over the fucking world, perhaps this means I'll be able to fullscreen a stream and not have it buffer every 15 seconds, even though Twitch has one in Miami which is only 200 miles away so perhaps this wont matter at all
 
Google was wanting to fold Twitch into YouTube. Which in reality they are pretty much the same thing with the exception of one being live and interactive and the other one just being video. But, the content is pretty much the same.
 
Google was wanting to fold Twitch into YouTube. Which in reality they are pretty much the same thing with the exception of one being live and interactive and the other one just being video. But, the content is pretty much the same.

YouTube already has livestream capability in their backend -- YouTube Events utilizes it. The only thing Google was wanting to do if they even wanted to buy Twitch.tv, is eliminate a source for traffic competition.
 
You know, another thought, this story could have some spin to it. Google could have backed out even without Amazon knowing.

Here in Kansas City, I work with a lot of engineers who dev / co dev ( engineers ) parts that end up in places from Walmart to all over the world. I constantly hear stories from these guys who have investors or other businesses come in under the guise of wanting to purchase the business. There is only so much these companies can do to protect themselves. There is a level of vulnerability if you let these people come in to see your operations and talk about your products and future plans / products.

It would be easy for Google to build a Twitch like business from the ground up. If Google visited with Twitch at length, trust me, they have the blueprint now.
 
After a month or so of hearing Google was going to buy Twitch.. this was unexpected!!

the_ending_is_totally_unexpected_fail_original.gif
 
Am I the only one who has never seen the point of Twitch or similar services?

When there's a new game out and I'm kinda on the fence about it, I'll goto twitch. Usually 15mins can tell me more than some paid review whether the game is for me or not.
 
When there's a new game out and I'm kinda on the fence about it, I'll goto twitch. Usually 15mins can tell me more than some paid review whether the game is for me or not.

This.

I also happen to like watching the streams of people who beat me, look at tactics and how things played out on their end, helps allot with improving.
 
Watching others play in some games, yeah I can see why some people enjoy that, although it isn't really my cup of tea. What really blows my mind is people donating to others just watching them play. Wtf? Why are you giving some random person money and watching them play a game.
 
Watching others play in some games, yeah I can see why some people enjoy that, although it isn't really my cup of tea. What really blows my mind is people donating to others just watching them play. Wtf? Why are you giving some random person money and watching them play a game.

Yeah , I have my doubts as well with the whole donation part and the livestream thing. If I see twitchtv streaming and gamers it is not positive.
 
Watching others play in some games, yeah I can see why some people enjoy that, although it isn't really my cup of tea. What really blows my mind is people donating to others just watching them play. Wtf? Why are you giving some random person money and watching them play a game.

No different from busking, really.
 
Yeah , I have my doubts as well with the whole donation part and the livestream thing. If I see twitchtv streaming and gamers it is not positive.

I watch twitch a lot, but I also do some occasional streaming.

The main reason for watching is that usually it is better than watching anything on cable tv as there are very few commercials if any. Usually only when first start watching a stream is there a commercial. Then you can watch for as long as you want until the streamer goes off the air without ever seeing another commercial ever.

The popular streamers when they take a break might run ads to support their channel to the people that don't sub to it. If you sub you don't get the commercials when they break and they usually have some good game music or people with like minded interests in the chat you can chat with as well.

twitch.tv for me supplements my netflix for something else to watch as I don't pay for cable tv and have not had cable tv since around 2000.

Btw, I find e-sports much more fun to watch than something like Baseball, football, hockey or whatever other physical sports are out there. But that's me.
 
Watching others play in some games, yeah I can see why some people enjoy that, although it isn't really my cup of tea. What really blows my mind is people donating to others just watching them play. Wtf? Why are you giving some random person money and watching them play a game.

I agree. Surprises me how that site got that popular.
 
No I also do not see the draw. Watching other neckbeards play games is boring.

What's even more ridiculous is people paying them. OMFG i can't believe the amount of stupid people in this world and their willingness to part with their own money. :eek:
 
If something doesn't work out the way Google wants it to, they loose interest and toss it on the trash heap.

Maybe there was a difference in how the two wanted to treat their viewership.
 
What's even more ridiculous is people paying them. OMFG i can't believe the amount of stupid people in this world and their willingness to part with their own money. :eek:

They like talking to the streamers 1 on 1. The really big streams have in excess of 40,000 people in the chat room every show. So the streamers cut on Subscriber Only mode to cut down on the number of people talking and spamming the chat. There really isn't a better way to do it. So then only the people who subscribe to the streamer are allowed to chat.

Also some people have money and like tossing funds to streamers. Partnered Streamers get advertising dollars, but some people like to donate to the streamer also to get a note read on stream. If it's fun for them then I don't knock it. :)
 
They like talking to the streamers 1 on 1. The really big streams have in excess of 40,000 people in the chat room every show. So the streamers cut on Subscriber Only mode to cut down on the number of people talking and spamming the chat. There really isn't a better way to do it. So then only the people who subscribe to the streamer are allowed to chat.

Also some people have money and like tossing funds to streamers. Partnered Streamers get advertising dollars, but some people like to donate to the streamer also to get a note read on stream. If it's fun for them then I don't knock it. :)

Its important to remember that unless you are a big shot streamer with constant 5 figure viewers that money isn't pouring out your ass. Donations are often what fund streams. Twitch pays but I believe in weird cycles and only like 2 times per year. No one can live on two paychecks even if they are big spread throughout the year without a kind of chaos to it.

If you like someone on Twitch donated. If you don't then don't. Its a pretty simple concept. I don't understand why people get angry about it. Probably because they didn't think of it first. Being a streamer is also work if you want to actually support yourself and sustain a quality of life. If you want to live in your parents basement and never leave your home then you can survive with modest triple digit numbers. But if you want to actually be independent then you need to actually be successful which is hard on Twitch.

I would hate to streamer like some do , games I couldn't stand to play , being constantly insulted and trolled. Having to deal with scorned subs who don't like something you've changed or nominate mods and hope they don't gain a god complex and start abusing your chat. Its still a job. You have to show up , be entertaining and engage your viewers or you will watch your stream die right off. If you can find a working formula then you can make serious money. But that's something only a handful of streamers have figured out. Sometimes it takes entire teams of people to make a stream successful.

People love to hate on streamers though. Some of them do deserve the reality check but making video games a "job" isn't what you think its cracked up to be.
 
I'm surprised by this news. Everyone thought it was Google. I wonder what Amazon's plan here is. Surely they have to have some important plan involving Twitch to spend such money on it.
 
I literally only discovered Twitch in the past 30 days. I've been on the fence on buying into the in-development space-sim, Elite:Dangerous. (currently in Beta)

The gameplay videos on YouTube help, but not compared to the popular E:D Twitch streams. These guys talk about the game, explain the navigation mechanics, the flight model, the trading tips, every aspect of the game as they play it. And they answer questions submitted in chat too. I'm spending part of my Labor Day weekend in Elite:Dangerous, thanks to these Twitch streams.

Amazon buying Twitch is great news to me. But I'm heavily invested in Amazon's ecosystem.
 
What's even more ridiculous is people paying them. OMFG i can't believe the amount of stupid people in this world and their willingness to part with their own money. :eek:
People part with their money in more stupid manners than donating to Twitch partners...
 
What's even more ridiculous is people paying them. OMFG i can't believe the amount of stupid people in this world and their willingness to part with their own money. :eek:

As long as you have the money to part with, isn't using money to obtain things you like (goods and services) kind of the whole point of money :p

According to various groups of people all of these things are wastes of money:

  • Preordering a game
  • Paying full price for a game
  • Buying a new car instead of a used car
  • Paying more than X dollars for a new or used car
  • Buying a prebuilt computer
  • Purchasing an extended warranty
  • Buying designer coffees (like Starbucks)
  • etc, etc, etc

The value of a good or service is always relative ... what I find useful and valuable might be just the opposite for you (and vice versa) ;)
 
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