MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Twitch has today launched a brand new content category called IRL. Designed to enable Twitch creators to share content from their everyday lives in addition to traditional gameplay videos, Twitch hopes IRL will encourage users to interact with their fans more closely and create tighter-knit communities.
Twitch says the category was inspired by feedback it had received from creators who said they wanted a way of interacting with their viewers in more vlog-like style videos rather than always speaking to them through the medium of gameplay videos.
Twitch is hoping users will use IRL to share updates and discussions about their lives and channel, as well as personal highlights from events and trips abroad.
To accompany this new service, Twitch has also announced plans to update its Twitch mobile app so users will eventually be able to broadcast their IRL videos straight from their phone. The mobile broadcasting feature will launch in 2017 and will support native streaming on-the-go.
Twitch has also updated its community guidelines to specifically allow the broadcasting of non-gaming content.
We’re amazed by our creators who build thriving communities and create compelling content for millions of viewers,” said Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch. While gaming is their core identity, what we’ve heard repeatedly from them is that they are interested in sharing their everyday lives, thoughts, and opinions with their communities. IRL is designed to help our creators foster that kind of community interaction.”
IRL is Twitch’s latest effort to broaden the types of videos available on the platform. Twitch previously launched Twitch Creative to encompass streams of gamers’ doing cosplay or game-related fan art, and it’s Social Eating experiment launched in response to the current online trend in South Korea that sees friends eating meals together online.
To celebrate IRL’s launch, Twitch will be running a livestreamed product announcement using the new category from 10pm in the UK today.
