I think it might be that March 11, 2014 will mark the unofficial launch of the Xbox One proper – we just got word that the much-anticipated Twitch app, originally planned for launch date will be hitting Microsoft’s newest console on March 11th. This follows the system updates slated a week earlier that are supposed to fix issues and improve the online multiplayer experience. Announced both on Microsoft’s official Xbox Wire and on the Twitch.tv blog, what does this really mean to us?
“Xbox, Broadcast”
With a onetime twitch account setup, Xbox One players will be able to stream their gaming over Twitch, and whats more, you can even have the camera recording you at the same time. With room for up to 10 chat streams, others can join in on the conversation as well as having a moderator to allow the player to focus on the game.
Twitch also allows fullscreen or snapped view, while your viewers can chat via text or join in on the conversation. The game player can even host a private channel and be able to chat outside the Twitch stream. As indicated above, you can simply tell the Xbox to start or stop broadcasting your game session.
As a spectator, you can watch other games, or use the app to join in an active session. Twitch activity will integrate in key Xbox One apps such as Friends and Activity Feed, allowing you to do things like launch a friends game channel, or even flag them for notification. What’s more, the OneGuide will also let you add favorites making it easy to see your favorites.
As someone who sometimes enjoys sitting on the couch watching others play, I’m pretty excited. If this works as well as it sounds like it should March 11 can’t come soon enough.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, at a young age I was forced to decide whether the harsh northern winters were going to claim my fingers, or to turn to the safer pursuits of indoor activities. Little did I know that a little game called Ninja Gaiden would bring my digits more pain than frostbite ever could. Starting with Vectrex and C64 games and moving forward through the era of electronic entertainment, I sampled as much as I could in the different platforms, and began my interest in PC gaming from wrestling with DOS memory management.
While console games were a part of my earliest gaming memories and I certainly had played on most platforms including 3D0, all things Nintendo, PS1 and the like, truly the PC was my domain until the Xbox. As an old PC gamer, I ever chased the cutting edge technology. Eye of the beholder with CGA 4 colors was my first step down the the path of blowing thousands of dollars on PC upgrades over two decades. Ultima 7, with the Guardian talking to me through my monitor, still haunts my dreams and keeps me ever hoping for a decent Ultima 8 and 9. From the 3DFX SLI VooDoo2s and Aureal to today's GPU driven DirectX games, the new and shiny pictures seem to keep me going. My PC gaming has slowed down with the market shift though, and although I have choice games that will ever be on PC, I have found myself in console gaming with a bit of portable gaming in my life.
Back around the turn of the millenium (and long before fatherhood), I had fired off an email offering to help Ron with a little-known site called ConsoleGold. Little did I know it would be be a part of my life to this day. While I've seen my fair share of shovelware (thanks Ron!), I manage to try and find the fun in most games. Leaning towards sandbox and action titles, I've grown to love games for their potential to reach art. Console agnostic and excited for the progress of tomorrow, I fancy the latest and greatest, but still enjoy the good old classics ... as long as they've been revamped from their 8bit graphic roots.
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