Xbox One Twitch Streaming Coming In March

It’s finally happening: Twitch is coming to Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox One. The streaming app will launch for the console on March 11, the same day first-person shooter “Titanfall” reaches buyers. The app will come with broadcasting functionality, chat, following abilities and notifications.

"With Twitch streaming confirmed for release on Xbox One, a huge number of console owners are about to be introduced to game broadcasting and the Twitch community,” said Matthew DiPietro, vp of marketing at Twitch. “More than half of the households in the U.S. have a console, and those that do have them own an average of two. This puts Twitch in a staggering number of living rooms. The Twitch experience on Xbox One is easily the most feature-complete of our console integrations, and will hopefully turn on legions of gamers to the Twitch phenomenon."

Twitch currently boasts 13 billion minutes watched per month, with more than 1 million unique broadcasters per month. The following information was posted on Twitch’s blog this morning.

Along with broadcasting functionality, the updated Twitch app for Xbox One gets an enhanced viewing experience as well – Chat, Following and Notifications are all coming in the update. With so much new stuff, let’s jump right into the particulars. See below for a video overview and feature set. And you can read more on Xbox Wire and in the news.

Broadcasting

Instantly live-broadcast your games by simply speaking “Xbox, Broadcast,” or launch from within the Twitch app for Xbox One.

Position the webcam PIP in any corner of the screen to best fit your game.

Interact with broadcasters using the most lines of chat available on a console.

Your Xbox friends are notified when you go live.

Viewing and Chatting

View live gameplay from any Twitch source: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, PS4, etc.

Get notifications when your favorite gamers are broadcasting so you never miss a minute.

For Xbox One broadcasts, you can view the broadcaster’s Xbox Live profile and send them a party request and join their game.

See which Xbox Live friends are broadcasting and what they’re broadcasting.

Partake in the chat experience, including using your subscription-based emotes and chat badges.

Turbo subscribers get an ad-free experience.

When the Xbox One launched last year on Nov. 22, Microsoft announced that the ability to stream live gameplay via Twitch wouldn’t be available until 2014.

This was bad news for Microsoft, since the PS4, which launched on Nov. 15, allowed gameplay streaming directly from the console. The Sony system also supported live broadcasts through Ustream and Twitch. During the first few days after its launch, there were hundreds of streams on PlayStation Plus from PS4 players – even Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s head of Worldwide Studios, tried out the new feature in a highly-watched stream during the PS4’s launch night.

"We know the ability to instantly broadcast gameplay is something the gaming community is excited about, and we are too," Microsoft stated in a blog post last November. "We are working to ensure the initial Twitch on Xbox One broadcasting experience meets the expectations of the Twitch community, so while this feature won’t be available right away, we’ll let you know as soon as it is ready. Our goal is to deliver it during the first part of 2014."

Twitch community manager Jared Rea wrote a blog entry last year about the streaming delay. “We’ll be working with Sony in the months and years to come to improve and enhance this feature to make it as great as possible.” Rea also added, “We’re stoked at what we’ve accomplished so far, but we’re not stopping here.”

Although live broadcasting wasn’t previously available, players were still be able to record gameplay clips under five minutes and upload them to Xbox Live. Users will also be able to view outside streams through their console using the Twitch app.

Are you excited for Twitch to reach the Xbox One? Comment below or tweet me!