You can now broadcast your Xbox One games to a potential audience of millions. Twitch live streaming is coming to Xbox One.
Microsoft’s newest console is joining the fray four months after PlayStation 4’s successful Twitch integration. Within two months of its Nov. 2013 launch, PlayStation 4 accounted for 20 percent of Twitch broadcasters and 10 percent of Twitch’s minutes broadcast.
The Xbox One previously only allowed recording via its Twitch app, but not live broadcasting, and Microsoft is hoping that new features will make up for its late entry to the livestreaming party. Next month, an update will allow players to live stream games, join games with broadcasters, start broadcasting with voice commands, archive game clips, and watch any Twitch stream they want.
That will make for a much more robust app than its PlayStation 4 counterpart, which only allows players to spectate other PlayStation 4 players and does not include an easy connection feature.
The new Xbox One Twitch features will launch on March 11 alongside Titanfall, one of the most highly anticipated games of the year.
“With Twitch streaming confirmed for release on Xbox One, a huge number of console owners are about to be introduced to game broadcasting and the Twitch community,” said Matthew DiPietro, VP of Marketing, Twitch.
“More than half the households in the US have a console, and those that do have them own an average of two.” This, DiPietro noted, “puts Twitch in a staggering number of living rooms.”
In 2013, Twitch peaked with 45 million monthly. Over the year, Twitch users watched 122 billion minutes of video, with 67 million total videos broadcast, a 100 percent increase from 2012. If the Xbox One can match the PlayStation 4, 40 percent of Twitch broadcasters could be from next-gen consoles, the perfect foundation for another year of monstrous growth.
Photo via Mack Male/Flickr (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
