You watch as your friend breaks a block, jumps through and over the previously impenetrable wall to reveal a secret room with three pipes.
People have always played games together, as a community. From backgammon to chess to Risk and Monopoly. For a while now–since Mario, at least, but really even for longer–it’s been video games. Twitch takes that sharing to the Internet, to allow anyone anywhere to show themselves playing or to watch others play, while chatting and arguing and experiencing a game together.
Today, Twitch is allowing more people than ever to play together by bringing its broadcasting service to Microsoft’s Xbox One. By simply speaking the voice command, “Xbox Broadcast,” anyone can have a channel on Twitch. This extends what the company did last November, when it launched as part of the controller’s “share” button and the software of Sony’s new PlayStation 4. Over the past few months, PS4 broadcasters have become 20% of the total broadcasters on the site, fueling much of Twitch’s growth.
“When I was a young boy playing playing Pac-Man, it was sitting in a living room with family and friends and playing video games,” says Matthew DiPietro, Twitch Interactive’s VP of Marketing. “You were watching your friends get to a level you’d never seen before or a boss they’d just beat and you can’t wait to get your hands back on the controller.”
Read the full article at Fast Company.