Twitch: ‘New generation of gamers don’t want to read’

Game Informer and Gamereactor may be entering the UK, but according to TV giant Twitch, gamers don’t want new magazines, they want video.

The US firm is like ‘YouTube for video games’, but specialises in live video and eSports. Its 23m unique monthly users watch 6bn minutes of video a month, and predicts that latter figure will grow to 10bn minutes by the summer.

Twitch has hired staff on the ground in the UK and has signed a partnership with GameSpot parent CBSi.
What people expect of media is changing,” chief revenue officer Jonathan Simpson-Bint, previously the boss of Future US, told MCV.

"We all expect a lot more in video form. At my age I’m not expecting video, if I click on a story I want to read it. My 14 year-old son doesn’t want to read anything. He wants to be told things.

"I’m a big believer in magazines, the experience is still wonderful but it’s just that the business model is broken. You have a generation of people coming through that just have a different feeling about media."

Head of consumer at CBSi UK Steve Wing added: "As people require more from their gaming media it is not very smart not to be where they are. For a generation of people Twitch is super-important. You’d be crazy to ignore it."