Amazon's Twitch.com to Sell Video Games

27 Feb, 2017 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Twitch.com, Amazon’s social media site geared toward gamers, Feb. 27 announced it would soon begin selling third-party video games.

Twitch Games Commerce will enable developers to test and market games directly online through a revenue-sharing agreement. Developers earn 70% of the revenue and Twitch streamers will earn 5% for sales originating (recommended) from their channel pages. Twitch keeps the rest.

When the program launches this spring, games will be available from publishers, including Ubisoft, Telltale Games, Digital Extremes, Hi-Rez Studios, tinyBuild, Paradox Interactive, Trion Worlds and Vlambeer, among others.

“Many of our streamers want to make a living doing what they love," Matt McCloskey, VP of commerce at Twitch, said in a statement. “To help them, we're enabling game developers to sell game content at the exact time and place their communities are gathered to watch, which in turn lets streamers earn money from games sold on their channels.”

Amazon has sold physical video games for years. North America is No. 2 in total game sales with estimated revenue of $25.4 billion in 2016, according to NewZoo.com.

Use of phones and mobile devices for gaming are at an all-time high, surpassing both PCs and consoles within several gaming segments, according to The NPD Group. Seventy-eight percent of gamers use some type of phone or mobile device for gaming, an increase of seven percentage points from 2014. Phone and mobile device usage increased across all segments, with casual gamers experiencing the highest increase (10%).

“For years we have appreciated how supportive Twitch streamers and viewers have been of our games,” said Chris Early, VP of digital publishing at Ubisoft. “This made it an easy decision to work with Twitch to better serve our passionate community with benefits for everyone.”

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