Dutch developers Vlameer have constructed a deal with twitch to sell their game ‘Nuclear Throne’ through twitch.tv. This is the first time Twitch has stepped into the video game sales market and success could lead to bigger endeavors. Nuclear Throne is an action game where players take control of a mutant in a post apocalyptic world and seemingly kill other mutants until they reach the nuclear throne and win. Players will also be able to mutate their mutants (Who didn’t see that coming?) for other bonuses providing players with a fresh experience in every new game. The trailer can be seen here.
Twitch expanding their market could lead to great opportunities for developers and twitch alike. A great potential feature would be a buy now button next to the display of what game is being played on any given channel. What better way to sell a game than to show players how fun your game can be? And what better marketers than players who are unwittingly a part of Twitch’s master plot. But in all seriousness twitch could very well be onto something.
Twitch has also pledged to back kickstarter project ‘Choice Chamber‘ which is an adventure game relying on twitch chat to dictate each gameplay experience by voting on power ups, enemies, obstacles, and rule changes. It appeared that the game would not get funded until twitch intervened and agreed to cover the remaining funding requirements. Gameplay being dictated by chat is not anything new to twitch. Twitch Plays Pokemon was wildly popular just a couple of months ago having twitch users type commands into chat to to dictate player actions.
Twitch have been leaders in video game broadcasting for some time so it is interesting to see them expand their horizons and hopefully provide a quality service for gamers. Of course I could be completely wrong as I usually am and Twitch just wants their money grubbing hands on everything. Regardless these new ventures show that twitch is willing to expand their services and provide more than just a platform for streaming.