Twitch Starts Selling Games Directly
A month or so after the original announcement, Twitch has rolled out its own games store. In truth, it’s not really a store – merely the option to buy games from Amazon via Twitch, but it does have its perks. There are already several titles available, and the list is only going to expand in the next few days. A percentage of each purchase will go to the streamer who facilitated it (by streaming the game), while the customer will receive some random Twitch goodies as well.
The process is simple – when you see your favorite streamer play a game that seems interesting, look for a purple button on the left side, right under the video. When you click it, it will open up a pop-up that will allow you to buy the game on Amazon. The streamer will get 5% of the game’s selling price (if they’re partnered), and you’ll get a Twitch Crate containing random emotes, badges and amounts of bit (cheering currency).
The other way to purchase is to visit a game’s details page. You’ll find the buy button in the top left corner, just under the game’s name. If there are several offers (like mutliple tiered packs for free to play games), you’ll have to visit this page anyway, to see what each one of them contains and chose the one you prefer.
The pickings are slim at the moment – we’ve seen Firewatch, For Honor and Smite, while none of the games from the top two rows seem to be participating. The offer should expand in the next few days though – expect stuff from Ubisoft, Telltale Games, Hi-Rez Studios, tinyBuild, Vlambeer, Trion Worlds and Paradox Interactive for starters. Some of the games will be available for download through Twitch’s own game app, while others will provide keys for services like Uplay.