Virtual gamers meeting — really
Xbox, my computer, and I watch Twitch instead of television.”
Twitch provides an online and mobile platform for video game players to broadcast their games as they play. Viewers tune in to their favorite player’s channel, picking up game tips and chatting with the player and other viewers.
Twitch has built such a popular service, especially among youths who are turning away from regular TV, that Amazon paid about $1.1 billion to acquire the company in August 2014. But the convention Friday and Saturday in San Francisco’s Moscone West is the first big real-world gathering for people who have mainly met in the virtual world.
“It is about the people who use it, whether you are a broadcaster, whether you are a partner or whether you are actually just someone who likes to come and view and chat on the platform,” Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said during his opening keynote speech.
“This entire story is about you guys, the community, and how you built Twitch into what it is today,” he said.
Twitch members got the chance to meet and greet their favorite broadcasters — video game players who build up a following on their Twitch channel. But the line was also long for Giants right fielder Hunter Pence, who started his own Twitch channel in 2014, and his girlfriend, Alexis Cozombolidis, a.k.a. LetsGetLexi.
Twitch executives said the convention turnout blasts the stereotype that gamers are shut-ins playing alone in their parents’ basement.
That perception “is so absolutely 180 degrees wrong,” said Matt DiPietro, senior marketing vice president.
“The truth is they are more social than any other representative sample of the population,” he said. “The value they get from Twitch is that it’s a social outlet, and the value they get from TwitchCon is to bring that social outlet into the real world.”
Ethan Foust, 12, of Oakland proudly showed off the autographs he got from his favorite “Minecraft” broadcasters on Twitch. “I like that they actually respond to you when you talk to them,” he said.
His mom, Karin Foust, said she didn’t quite understand Twitch, so she agreed to chaperone her son and a friend to learn more. She found Shear’s keynote “fascinating.” “Now I think I have to go explore to see if there’s a mom-focused Twitch channel,” Foust said. “Or I’ll start my own.”
Twitch announced that it is teaming up with game publisher Electronic Arts, which is creating a weekly digital series about its “Madden NFL Live” game that will also be shown on Twitch.
“What we’re trying to accomplish is to go back to the foundational premise of Twitch, which is to create a platform for the gaming community to get together and share their passion for games,” DiPietro said.
“I don’t even have cable in my room. I just have my Xbox, my computer and I watch Twitch.”
Cruz Perez, 24, of Yuba City