It looks like the next frontier in streaming is interactivity, judging from Twitch‘s (Free) new Extensions and from Microsoft’s Mixer. As we talked about yesterday, Microsoft is hoping that allowing viewers using its Mixer app to interact with streamers with more than just chat will help it stand out among other streaming services, but barely a day went by and Twitch fired its own interactive broadside. Specifically, Twitch has introduced Extensions, new tools that allow streamers to make their channels more interactive. Specifically, extensions are interactive video overlays and panels directly integrated with the streams that will allow viewers to learn more about the game being played, enable viewers to vote on streamers’ next move in real-time, and much more.
For instance, there’s an Extension that lets you hover over Hearthstone cards to see its details, a great tool that helps viewers get more into the game and, also, give advice on what could be the best next move. These extensions are being developed by third parties, so it remains to be seen how many we’ll get and for what kinds of games. I’m excited to see streaming becoming more of a two-way street, and I’m pretty sure we’ll find ways to use these Extensions on our Twitch channel. What do you think of this push for interactivity? Sound off in the comments.
I'm excited for this since I have little hope of catching some regional mons, but am cautiously optimistic about its implementation. I've played F2P games that make you use in-game items (maybe comparable to stardust) to initiate trades, and then you still have to wait for the transfer no matter if you're across the world or standing next to the other player. As long as the first iteration isn't horrible, I'm sure most players will be happy trading exists at all.
Interesting. We get info from the Pokémon company CEO but John Hanke is nowhere to be found. If Niantic is a publicly traded company, it's time for investors to put some pressure on, because niantic does not listen to customers.
The game still doesn't even load up sometimes and when it does, don't worry there will be an error preventing you from doing one thing or another.
Can't catch Pokémon outside of cities, can't do raids unless you live in an area where there are an abundance of players, battle mechanics are nothing more than a swipe-a-thon, no CPU trainer encounters and candy system is a joke. If this wasn't Pokémon branded it would have the same amount of users or less than ingress.
There's plenty more wrong with this game and niantic has done nothing for 13 months to fix any of it. Over 1 billion in revenue and this is the turd we get.
I have patience, been waiting 13 months and update after update for the top 5% of players who live in cities.
"Over 1 billion in revenue and this is the turd we get."
I'd say investors are pretty happy and don't care about putting pressure on Niantic. ;)
Assuming investors only care about short term gain, yes, you are right. This game will fade away in a matter of time. They can't rely on complete reworks to reinvigorate the player base every 8 months and continue growth.
Maybe that's exactly what the Pokémon company is doing here. I don't see why they are giving details when it's developed by Niantic.