Twitch will start selling games and giving its streamers a cut

It already dominates video game streaming, but Twitch is now getting into a new market: video game selling. The company will start selling games and in-game content through its service this spring, it announced today, allowing viewers to buy titles from publishers both big and independent through its streamers’ channels.

The move opens up a new revenue stream for Twitch, but it should also benefit its legion of broadcasters, too. Partnered streamers will get five percent of the sale originating on their channel, the company confirmed, while 70 percent goes to the game's creator. That makes it an intriguing prospect for both big and small publishers alike, who could get thousands — if not millions — of eyeballs on their games with an easy “buy” option just inches away.

People who do buy games through the platform will also get a handful of Twitch-specific items to sweeten the pot. Purchases through the service will come with a “Twitch Crate” — a random selection of emotes, badges, and Bits (a Twitch currency, used for animated chat GIFs, and usually bought with real money) — that should appeal to the millions of regular Twitch viewers.

A number of publishers have already signed deals with Twitch to sell their games through the service. Bigger names are represented by companies including Ubisoft, Telltale Games, and Paradox Interactive, alongside indie studios like Vlambeer and tinyBuild. Notably absent at the moment are other big names publishers like Activision, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco. EA is also off the list, presumably because it's still focusing on its own PC game distribution platform, Origin.

Notably, the most popular games on the service — including League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — were published by companies that don't yet have deals to sell their games or items through Twitch. That may change with time, or it may see a change in the games broadcast, with the temptation of receiving a percentage cut pulling some streamers over to new titles, where they could make money off in-game items sold through their channel.

The move may also alter the dynamic between publisher and broadcaster, with companies striking new deals with prominent streamers to play specific games. Certainly, similar deals between publisher and broadcaster already exist, but the front-and-center placement of a new "buy" button on a streamer's channel may make the interaction between visibility and sales more concrete, and turn Twitch into even more of a retail force.

In that, Twitch's new announcement makes it one of the biggest challenges yet to Steam, currently the de facto marketplace for PC games. Valve’s platform is certainly not the only digital distribution platform available to PC gamers, but it is by far the biggest, with a user base in the tens of millions. Unlike most of Steam's competitors, Twitch isn't working from a standing start — it already a similarly huge user base who interact with it daily, trust it as a platform, and speak its complicated language. And as with Steam, games bought through Twitch can also downloaded and launched through the Twitch launcher, keeping viewers within the company's ecosystem.

Purchase options will go live in Spring, but Twitch has yet to confirm exactly when they will arrive on streamers' pages. Games will come in English first, with prices in US dollars, before with localized versions appear later this year.