The Mac and PC versions of Mojang’s Minecraft will soon allow players to stream directly to their personal Twitch channel, Twitch confirms. News of the forthcoming integration that will be added “soon,” came during MineCon 2013, which happened on November 2nd and 3rd in Orlando, FL.
“Minecraft has struck a very powerful chord with the Twitch community,” Twitch VP of Marketing Matthew DiPietro said in a prepared statement. “Its constantly escalating popularity illustrates that people love to watch video games outside of the headline grabbing eSports titles. Expect a watershed moment for both players and spectators once the ability to easily broadcast gameplay directly to Twitch goes live.”
“Let’s Play” video series’ are all the rage in the Minecraft fan community. The game lends itself very well to developing content around a running series of videos, since its open-ended, completely random nature guarantees that no two playthroughs will ever be quite the same. Twitch streaming lends another wrinkle to this; LPs (as Let’s Play videos are often called) tend to be pre-recorded and edited down for length, whereas the live streaming that Twitch offers leaves no room for breaks.
The more immediate ability to broadcast gameplay won’t necessarily work for showcasing elaborate building projects – since such efforts consume much time and typically involve a lot of tedium – but it’s a potentially neat tool for those that want to show off completed creations. Creation is a central facet of Minecraft, but sharing what you’ve built with the wider world isn’t an easy process for those that aren’t technically minded. Twitch integration solves for that problem, and you can expect it to be welcomed by diehards in the fan community.
