TwitchCon has officially kicked off in San Francisco this week, and as you can tell from our live streaming at the event, there’s a lot going on.
However, the show got its start with a special keynote, with director of programming Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham providing some great stats about the channel, such as how many Kappa images are used in chat sessions (roughly 665 a minute) and $15 million being raised for charity by streamers within the last year.
Then CEO/founder Emmett Shear took the stage to reveal several new announcements revolving around the streaming channel, one of which could easily make it compete with YouTube when it comes to the upload front.
Video Uploads were easily the biggest announcement during the show, as broadcasters will be able to use a simple web interface to upload their videos without them going live first. This feature is set to arrive sometime in early 2016.
In addition, search will be enhanced, making it easier to find specific streamers and games, and an HTML5 video player will be introduced, for those who prefer that style of video player. Customizable thumbnails will be available as well, so that they can categorize certain videos for their viewers, instead of what broadcasted last like before. These will tie in with a 24/7 playlist, using a simple drop-and-drag interface. These are due in early 2016 as well.
A new piece of production software was also introduced, in the form of Gameshow, which supports cross-platform. This enables streamers to set up high-quality broadcasts, templates, dynamic editing and other features to make their online sessions work much better than ever before.
Finally, Twitch didn’t limit its announcements to just the mobile/desktop front. It also announced a new PlayStation app that is set to launch early next year, opening up a wide variety of features for owners of the PlayStation 4 and other Sony consoles. This includes better viewing of live gameplay sessions and much easier ability to broadcast certain titles.
There is some big news here, and we’ll see how effectively they unfold over the next few months.
In the meantime, if you want more TwitchCon action, be sure to watch the live stream here.
