Twitch Nets $20 Million From Take-Two, Other Investors

[BlameTheWizards]

Twitch Nets $20 Million From Take-Two, Other Investors

The video streaming site gets cash injection ahead of the next generation console launch.



Twitch has become the go-to site for people looking for videos of their favorite game, and others in the business world have taken notice. The company announced today a $20 million investment among several parties, led by venture investment firm Thrive Capital but also including Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two and WestSummit Capital, a Chinese technology investment firm. It is unclear how much the individual parties each contributed to the $20 million.

A press release issued by Twitch noted that the money will be used to help prepare the site's infrastructure for the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year. Twitch had previously announced viewing and broadcasting integration for both consoles.

"Given the excitement surrounding Microsoft and Sony's upcoming video game consoles, Twitch will be in a lot of living rooms this holiday season," said Kevin Lin, Twitch COO, via the press release. "Their intuitive and accessible integration of Twitch removes the barriers to entry which casual broadcasters currently face, so we expect traffic numbers to soar when these consoles launch. The trend of video game based content as entertainment is not only here to stay, it's becoming a critical part of the holistic gaming experience."

"Twitch is a company that we see riding multiple waves both in gaming and online video," said Chris Paik, Partner at Thrive Capital. "By providing gamers a new way to express themselves, Twitch has built a strong, passionate and fast growing community around itself."

Not included in the release was a comment from Take-Two. However, given the <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128014-Grand-Theft-Auto-V-Breaks-1-Billion-In-Three-Days>millions of dollars the company made on Grand Theft Auto V since its Sept. 17 launch and the fact that the game has a multiplayer component set to launch tomorrow, it seems clear Take-Two has its eyes set on developing its online community going forward.

Source: Joystiq

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[rofltehcat]

Did they also mention what they want to use the money for? The chats keep crashing, even the ones of certified Twitch partners (the ones that can stream in more than 1 resolution).

 

[CriticalMiss]

Did they also mention what they want to use the money for? The chats keep crashing, even the ones of certified Twitch partners (the ones that can stream in more than 1 resolution).

From the article:

A press release issued by Twitch noted that the money will be used to help prepare the site's infrastructure for the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year.

So I'm guessing something along the lines of 'fuck loads of servers' will be part of the upgrades.

Also, why aren't Microsoft and Sony the ones investing since they are the ones apparently partnering with the site? Or is this $20 million on top of their investments too?

 

[AldUK]

The reason why the chat goes down on Twitch is because the servers are dying under the stress of a LoL tournament. Happens almost every single time. But hopefully not for long. This is great news for me, Twitch is easily one of my most visited websites these days.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Good to hear, hopefully they can use it to make the infrastructure a lot better. The one complaint I have is that completely unrelated streams are affected when big tournaments like LoL Worlds (for the most recent example) are streamed.

 

[Strazdas]

Am i the only one that dont actually like this? i dont like twitch and i certainly dont like monopoly on streaming and it seems all other sites are dieing due to twitch poopularity. i watched EVE stream on twitch in AT, and that site was hell to use and the player crashed twice. sure, its nto as bad as youtube but its bad.

 

[Alfador_VII]

Twitch need to get their act together before the new consoles hit.

It can't even handle a few hundred thousand people watching LoL for a few hours, what will happen when all these millions of PS4s and Xbones with built-in Twitch streaming suddenly coming online?

It's not healthy that they have a monopoly on streaming either, they have no incentive to get better..