Twitch is looking into bringing its streaming apps to handhelds, starting with the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita.
Kevin Lin, Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Twitch, recently revealed in an interview that the next destination for its streaming service is handheld systems but currently there are processing and server issues holding it up.
Lin also made reference to the successful integration of the Twitch service with mobile systems, which was obviously a major influence on the company’s decision to pursue handhelds.
Popular racing title Asphalt 8: Airborne recently became the first mobile game to feature Twitch’s live streaming functionality. Asphalt’s developer Gameloft displayed the game’s broadcasting capabilities via a 24-hour live stream on Twitch at the Gamer Developers Conference (GDC) in March.
“Handhelds. That’s something we’d love to do. On handhelds, it’s more of a server/CPU concern, but we definitely want to do it. We want to build viewing apps, that’s much less CPU intensive than broadcasting,” said Lin.
Although the Twitch COO held off from detailing any specific plans, it sounds like viewing apps are more likely for the 3DS and Vita than direct streaming functionality – which is available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Speaking about the success of the Twitch apps on those last-gen consoles, Lin stated: “Now each of those consoles [PS4 and Xbox One] represents about 20 per cent of overall broadcasters. There’s about 250,000 unique broadcasters per month from each.”
As part of the extensive interview, Lin also dished out some advice for Twitch streamers, telling them to play the games that come naturally to them rather than chasing viewers via popular titles.
“The key to this is: just start! Fire it up, play the games you love. Don’t play what you think is popular if you don’t play it normally. Watch a lot of content, the top streamers, pay attention to how and when they stream,” he stated.