Twitch launches own-brand Studio streaming software

Live streaming specialist and Amazon subsidiary Twitch has launched its first own-brand streaming software suite for Windows, dubbed Twitch Studio.

Founded in 2011 as a subsidiary of Justin.tv and acquired by Amazon in August 2014 after negotiations with Google collapsed, Twitch has been expanding its efforts to attract streamers to its platform: As well as a microtransaction payment system for content creators and a digital distribution platform for games, the company has launched an 'IRL' non-gaming category, professional sports broadcasting, a game show, and its own collaborative karaoke game.

What it has not offered, until now, is own-brand streaming software, relying instead on third-party packages to capture game and camera feeds and send them to the platform.

'We've been listening to our users give us feedback, talk about their experience, how they started streaming, how they progress,' claims Cheng Cheng, Twitch's director of product management for the creator experience, 'and one really consistent pain point was that multiplayer entertainment is really fun, it's really engaging, but the bar to really get started is quite high.'

The solution is Twitch Studio, an own-brand streaming software package launched this week in beta form. Aimed at those who are just getting started with streaming, Twitch Studio is designed to be as simple to use as possible - in particular, the company claims, those who are perhaps not gamers, further expanding its creator audience beyond its origins.

Twitch Studio is a Windows-only package and currently running in a closed beta. Interested parties can apply for entry on the Twitch website.