Xbox One matches PS4: Twitch streaming arriving with Titanfall on 11 March

The popular game streaming service more than doubled its viewers from 2012 to 2013 - landing on the Xbox One won't hurt these figures

James Vincent
Wednesday 26 February 2014 17:01 GMT
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Titanfall is one of the most eagerly anticipated games for next gen consoles, but will its innovative use of cloud computing hurt more than it helps?
Titanfall is one of the most eagerly anticipated games for next gen consoles, but will its innovative use of cloud computing hurt more than it helps?

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Microsoft has announced the next Xbox One update will bring Twitch to the console. Support for the popular game streaming service will arrive on 11 March to coincide with the launch of the eagerly-awaited sci-fi shooter Titanfall.

Once users have downloaded an app they will be able to broadcast their game screen to viewers around the world, streaming the footage over the web with options to provide their own video and audio commentary via the Kinect.

Users will be able to view streams from any system (including the PS4 – whose owners cannot view Xbox One streams) and the broadcasts can be started and stopped with voice controls.

“It's complete integration," said Emmett Shear, co-founder and CEO of Twitch. "It's exciting because we've never had the ability to broadcast from a console like this with such a deep level of integration. The concept of being able to join a broadcasters' party is really cool, and it's another step in the direction of interacting more closely with broadcasters."

Video game streaming has been growing massively in recent months, and Twitch (now officially the world’s largest video game site) has been at the forefront of much of this growth.

Every month 45 million unique viewers visit the site, watching more than 12 billion minutes of content from more than 6 million streams. These numbers are roughly double those of 2012 and many tech commentators believe that Twitch’s popularity could push competitive video gaming into the mainstream.

Sony’s PS4 has shipped with Twitch from the get go, although the console’s extensive streaming capabilities did create some difficulties, with unfiltered channels beaming nudity and ‘excessive profanity’ into people’s living rooms.

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