Twitch

Save the Date: TwitchCon 2015, September 25-26 in San Francisco!

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The big news which was being teased by Twitch this week has finally been revealed [and you’ll have to do your own drumroll, I’m afraid, blame budget cuts]: It’s the first-ever TwitchCon, and it’s coming this September.

Watch the “The Big Announcement”.

Twitch announces TwitchCon for September 25 – 26 in San Francisco

Conventions, conventions, conventions. Everybody gets a convention. Facebook has F8. Twitter has Flight. Salesforce has Dreamforce. TechCrunch has TC Disrupt.

And now, Twitch has TwitchCon.

The company describes the conference as “an interactive convention for broadcasters and viewers alike to meet each other, learn how to take your Twitch game to the next level, and play together.”

Plans are still underway, and Twitch would like the community’s input on what should happen at the event. A new Twitter account, @twitchconsf, opened moments ago, and Twitch staff will be starting a dialogue there, as well as using the #twitchweekly Twitter tag.

A press release states that those who attend will be able to meet their favorite broadcasters, have the opportunity to experience live content broadcast directly from the convention center, and “learn from the community’s thought-leaders.”

There currently isn’t much other information, but Twitch says there will be more details on tickets, scheduling and accommodations in the weeks and months to come.

The livestream hosts initially trolled viewers by announcing a purple Twitch hoodie was now available on Amazon, but unfortunately that’s not true. Shame, it was a nice hoodie.

Twitch Purple Hoodie

 

Watch the “The Troll Announcement”.

Broadcasters and viewers looking for more information can sign up at Twitch’s dedicated hub page.

To stay up to date, bookmark our official TwitchCon website, twitchcon.com, and follow us on Twitter, @twitchconsf.

 

Here is our official press release:

Twitch Announces TwitchCon 2015

First official Twitch community convention comes to Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA on September 25-26

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 20, 2015 – Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers, today announced TwitchCon 2015, the company’s first ever convention dedicated to Twitch’s community of partners, broadcasters, and viewers.

  • What: TwitchCon
  • When: September 25-26, 2015
  • Where: Moscone West, San Francisco, CA

Created as a celebration of all things Twitch, the convention will attract members of the Twitch community from all over the globe. Attendees will have the chance to mingle with each other and their favorite broadcasters, experience live content from the convention center, and learn from the community’s thought-leaders.

“Twitch broadcasters have the most passionate fans, so we want to create an amazing experience where they can come together in person,” said Emmett Shear, CEO, Twitch. “TwitchCon will be an opportunity for the entire community – broadcasters, game developers, viewers, and us – to play and learn together.”

The event is being co-produced by Twitch and ReedPOP, the largest producer of pop culture events in the world.

More details about TwitchCon will be revealed over the coming months including an initial schedule and a call for content. For updates, please visit the TwitchCon homepage and subscribe to the official Twitch Twitter feed.

About Twitch

Twitch is the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers. Each month, more than 100 million community members gather to watch and talk about video games with more than 1.5 million broadcasters. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem. This includes game developers, publishers, media outlets, events, user generated content, and the entire esports scene. In February 2014, Twitch was ranked the 4th largest website in terms of peak internet traffic in the U.S., fortifying the brand as an entertainment industry leader and the epicenter of social video for gamers. For more information visit the Twitch website and the blog.

About ReedPOP

ReedPOP is a boutique group within Reed Exhibitions that is exclusively devoted to organizing events, launching and acquiring new shows, and partnering with premium brands in the pop culture arena. ReedPOP is dedicated to producing celebrations of popular culture throughout the world that transcend ordinary events by providing unique access and dynamic personal experiences for consumers and fans. The ReedPOP portfolio includes: New York Comic Con (NYCC), Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) Prime & East, Star Wars Celebration, and the UFC Fan Expo. In 2013, ReedPOP added Star Wars Celebration Europe and PAX Australia to its rapidly expanding portfolio of international events. The staff at ReedPOP is a fan-based group of professionals producing shows for other fans, thus making them uniquely qualified to service those with whom they share a common passion.  ReedPOP is focused on bringing its expertise and knowledge to world communities in North America, South America, Asia and Europe.

Twitch

Miss Twitch Weekly? Get the VOD + Timestamps for February 13th, 2015

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Here is the 4th episode of Twitch Weekly for 2015, talking about Twitch Plays Pokémon Returns, Twitch App Challenge, Survivor GameZ Recap, and much more. Thanks to /r/Twitch user Jikkircraft (@Jikkir on Twitter) who has put down all the subjects with timestamp links! Check it out below:

Watch live video from Twitch on Twitch

Hey guys, here’s the TL;DW for Twitch Weekly 02/13/2015. As always, VOD’s and links are next to each section. Hope it helps!

Intro

  • Hosts @djWHEAT, @SomaJT, @Fishstix, @Atrioc
  • There may or may not be a bit of silence at the start because of microphone oopsies – don’t worry! The VOD links past that! 😀
  • Soma is a God at Heroes of the Storm, or something…

VOD Time

Twitch Plays Pokémon Returns!

  • This marks the 1 year anniversary of Twitch Plays Pokémon… Darn it’s come by so quick!
  • For those that lived under the internet rock, TPP is a chat interactive gaming experience for all! Type your commands in the chat to help play along a nostalgia favourite
  • Pokemon Red is the game we’re all playing together
  • Abby 2.0 is our starter Pokémon! Charmander is love. Charmander is life.
  • Praise Helix Fossil! – The “PraiseIt” Emoticon is now global as a celebration of this awesome anniversary.
  • TPP Praise Helix shirts are now available – limited edition

VOD Time

AGDQ Info Graphics

  • Awesome Games Done Quick stats for you all; I’d highly recommend checking out the infographic!
  • Some notable statistics and achievements include:
  • $1.58M raised
  • 382,783 Kappas (~10% of all chat messages… WHAT)
  • 9.4 Million Unique Viewers

VOD Time

Twitch App Challenge by Overwolf – Vote for your favourite Apps!

  • We need you guys to start voting on some of your favourite App ideas and give some ideas yourself, here!
  • You may have heard about the Twitch App Challenge from the previous Twitch Weekly streams, but for those who haven’t heard, check some of the bullet points below!
  • Overwolf app competition going on up until April 30th
  • The goal? Improve the life of Twitch users – both broadcasters and viewers with your own PC-based app!
  • Check out the link in the title for rules, dates and to enter the competition!

VOD Time

Twitch Movie Night!

  • “World 1-1”
  • Takes a look at the origins and history of gaming
  • Check out Devolver!

VOD Time

Survivor GameZ Recap!

  • Hit a whopping 192k viewers – WOAH!
  • Lirik may or may not have died in the first 5 minutes… RIP
  • Congratulations to psiSyndicate and Kattnft on first place!
  • Main events every other month!
  • Qualifiers every month, starting next month

VOD Time

Dota Asian [Championships](http://twitch.tv/beyondthesummit

  • Prize pool nearly hit $3M
  • EG comes first place against Vici Gaming – a $1.2M grand prize!
  • 3 – 0 Sweep

VOD Time

Pokémon Regionals

  • Check out the tournament details here!
  • Trading card games, 2v2 battles.. Trust me, these guys rule!

VOD Time

CS:GO Katowice

  • ESL One Katowice offline qualifiers!
  • Check out tournament details here!
  • Always a huge event on Twitch – you don’t want to miss out!

VOD Time

LCS North America

VOD Time

New York Videogame Critics Circle Awards!

  • Fourth annual awards
  • Developers from around the world, and game oriented comedy clips from The Daily Show and Dorkly – it’s a great watch!
  • Monday, February 16th, 4:30PM PST!
  • Watch it live here

VOD Time

Fragdolls first annual “Just Dance Challenge”

  • Charity event for the Special Olympics
  • Each time they hit a goal of $200, they’ll start a group dance to a Just Dance song!
  • So far they’ve raised a total of $6k and are aiming for a $10k goal
  • The event finale will be streamed Sunday 02/15 – 7PM – 10 PM PST! Remember to follow them with the link in the title

VOD Time

Awesome, new top games being streamed!

VOD Time

Twitch Partner Spotlight – TigerWriter!

  • This week’s awesome partner – TigerWriter!
  • The Binding of the Beard! What a God
  • He’s a variety caster playing plenty of different games – an extremely nice guy with a great community
  • Stream schedule: Sunday to Thursday at 5PM PST/8PM EST

VOD Time

Video Spotlight – TerrorHertz!

  • Terror is an awesome streamer, though not full time mainly streaming on the weekends. Give him some love, and don’t forget to thank him and all awesome streamers for their time entertaining us awesome bunch!
  • Check out his trailer here
  • Want to be featured? Send in a 60-90 second trailer for your channel and DM /Twitch on Twitch with a dropboxxed video!

VOD Time

Staff Pick!

  • This week, the staff pick is an awesome mobile broadcaster with a pretty unique replay feature – DZLiveOnTwitch!
  • Recently partnered
  • He’s that dude with the cool foot pedals we spoke about last week!

VOD Time

Q&A

  • This week it exists! YAY! As always, answers aren’t typed here because they’re generally a little waffely, but below are all questions asked (if you’re interested) with the VOD link at the bottom!
  • Will there be any improvements to the current inbox system? The current system is a little too basic.
  • How can we purchase the new Praise Helix shirts?
  • Bets on how long TPP will take to complete?
  • Twitch has mentioned more varied content on the Twitch channel – any more information on that?

VOD Time

Closing Thoughts

  • Survivor GameZ did awesome
  • Thanks for watching, as always!
  • Remember PraiseIt is now a global emoticon!
  • PAX East panels have been released – Twitch’s Town Hall isn’t on the first day this time around!

VOD Time

News

19-Year-Old Swatter Faces 5 Years in Prison; Army Veteran Swatted Mid-Stream on Twitch – Today in “stuff that shouldn’t fit right into our gaming tag…”

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In addition to featuring prominently in Law and Order‘s upcoming Gamergate episode, the practice of swatting (falsifying claims with the aim of sending armed law enforcement to a target’s house) is gaining more national attention following the raid of 27-year-old veteran and Twitch streamer Joshua Peters’ home and the unrelated arrest of 19-year-old swatter Brandon Wilson.

According to The Guardian, Peters (Koopatroopa787 on Twitch) was playing Clash of Clans and Runescape for an audience of nearly 60,000 viewers when armed members of the Minnesota St. Cloud police department were dispatched to his house after receiving a phone-call that someone “had shot their roommate and now they were pointing their gun at them” at Peters’ residence. The police reportedly heard “two gun shots” before the call ended.

Peters, who told The Guardian “there’s no possible persons who I can think would do something like this to me,” addressed his Twitch followers after the attack, saying,

I see you posting my address. I had police point a gun at my little brothers because of you. They could have been shot, they could have died. Because you chose to swat my stream. I don’t give a shit about what you have against me, or what I did to you. For that I am at a loss for words. Your gripe is with me. But do not involve my family in this. They don’t deserve it.

Peters explained to The Guardian,

There’s not a lot of things that can get me emotional in this world… but it’s been a process getting back in my feet. Today was the first day where everything went smoothly, it was very energetic, everything was going well in my stream, and then it’s like, once again: here is another hurdle to overcome.

And this is way worse than anything else I’ve had to overcome. It was like… gosh, let’s go back to the other areas I had to deal with, they were much more manageable. I’m the oldest of four brothers, and to know that a gun was pointed at my little brother? That hits home for me.

Whether or not the perpetrators intended to inflict anything more than emotional trauma on Peters and his family, harassment-via-law-enforcement can obviously have fatal results: in 2014, a Utah man was shot and killed by a SWAT team after calling a suicide hotline, while a 1-year-old was severely burned after SWAT members threw a grenade into his playpen in October of last year. For African-American male targets, swatting obviously comes with additional terrifying implications.

Thankfully, at least one of the perpetrators responsible for this kind of harassment is facing repercussions: 19-year-old “Brandon Wilson,” known online as “Famed God” (!), has been arrested in Nevada and is awaiting extradition to Illinois for allegedly reporting a murder to Naperville, Illinois police in July 2014. According to Polygon, Wilson also threatened the banking and Social Security accounts of his gamer target and is suspected in multiple swatting incidents across the U.S.

Hopefully, Wilson’s arrest will set a precedent and serve as a deterrent for prospective swatters. In an ideal world, law enforcement would also be able to intervene in online abuse like the kind faced daily by many of the devs targeted by Gamergate without harassment needing to escalate into IRL consequences first.

Originally posted on The Mary Sue

Twitch

Why Twitch is the Video Network to Watch for 2015

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Twitch, a streaming service for video game content, has grown tremendously over the past 12 months. Last year, Social Times reported on Twitch as an underrated site in the video market. Twitch recently released 2014 data which indicates the network has taken a place as a growing force to be reckoned with.

According to the report, Twitch receives 100 million unique viewers per month, who 16 billion minutes of content per month. In other words: that’s more than 266 million hours per month.

YouTube viewers watch 6 billion hours per month, so Twitch remains in YouTube’s shadow in that regard. Still, compared to last year, Twitch viewing time increased by 66 million hours per month. Twitch has also doubled its monthly viewers count, and almost doubled its total videos broadcast per month.

Throughout 2014 Twitch implemented more ways to stream content to the site, and more ways to watch. Streaming is now available from desktop systems, certain iOS apps, as well as both PS4 and Xbox One consoles. Viewers can watch content on any of the aforementioned devices, in addition to Android systems, and TV streaming services like Chromecast and FireTV.

Twitch also commissioned a study of the gamers [PDF] who use the platform, which provides some interesting demographic data. 72 percent of gamers use smartphones, compared to 50 percent of non-gamers. 61 percent of gamers use tablet, compared to 33 percent of non-gamers. Gamers also tend to have higher levels of employment and education, and are more likely to use their devices to both consume and create more online content than their non-gaming counterparts.

The continued growth of e-sports is also a contributing factor to Twitch’s growth, according to the report. In fact, its users raised more than $10.5 million during various charity livestreams like Games Done Quick and Desert Bus For Hope. The Twitch community is clearly very engaged with the site and with the wider community.

Ultimately, Twitch’s success over the past year can’t really be attributed to the Amazon acquisition, which took place in August 2014. The site audience has been growing at a solid rate, and as more viewers become cord cutters seeking alternative entertainment, Twitch is well poised to capture that market.

Twitch

Top Twitch Games for January 2015

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After a brief winter slumber, the Top Twitch Games list is back! We crawled out from under our rock, saw our shadow, and still decided to go back inside and watch more games (and some KyleLandryPiano).

Let’s see, what’s interesting here…H1Z1 clawed its way into the top five because you just can’t kill the zombie apocalypse. Gaming Talk Shows, our catchall category for talking about games and Twitch stuff, jumped up eight places thanks to the likes of RocketBeansTV, KindaFunnyGames, and Dropped Frames. Closing out the Top 20, Dying Light broke through the darkness because, again, there are lots and lots of zombies shambling around and they’re simply not contributing to a positive society so…

Waiting to break into the Top 20: Heroes of the Storm (21), Music (23), and Evolve (24). (Evolve returns February 10th.)

We offer unto you the Top 20. Now with Directory links!

Twitch Top Games for January 2015 (By Total Minutes Watched)
Ranking Title Prev. Month Difference
1 League of Legends 1 E
2 Dota 2 3 +1
3 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 4 +1
4 Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft 2 -2
5 H1Z1 New
6 World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor 5 -1
7 Minecraft 6 -1
8 Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm 7 -1
9 Fifa 15 8 -1
10 Destiny 9 -1
11 Gaming Talk Shows 19 +8
12 ArmA III 12 E
13 Smite 16 +3
14 Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare 15 +1
15 RuneScape 17 -2
16 World of Tanks 14 -2
17 DayZ 10 -7
18 Dying Light 15 -3
19 Grand Theft Auto V 13 -6
20 The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 11 -9