Twitch streaming comes to Xbox One next month

Twitch live game broadcasting will come to Xbox One via a system update on March 11, Microsoft announced.

The update will enable Xbox One users to live stream games, join in on games with broadcasters, initiate broadcasts with voice commands, archive game clips, and watch Twitch streams broadcast from any device.

Currently, Xbox One users can only watch Twitch streams from other devices and record gameplay clips via the system’s Upload Studio.

“It’s complete integration,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. “It’s exciting because we’ve never had the ability to broadcast from a console like this with such a deep level of integration. The concept of being able to join a broadcasters’ party is really cool, and it’s another step in the direction of interacting more closely with broadcasters.”

Twitch has been available on PlayStation 4 since launch. However, PlayStation 4’s Twitch service was crafted by Sony, and only allows viewers to view streams broadcast from other PlayStation 4s.

“That’s a very certain type of experience,” Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft vice president of marketing and strategy for Xbox, said. “For us, we thought that was too limiting for what our fans would want. Our fans really want the full next-gen service, so that’s why we decided to take our time, do it right and have it come out in this fashion.”

Shear said that he would like to see the new capabilities of Twitch’s Xbox One app come to other devices, including PlayStation 4.

Thanks, AP.