On the official Twitch page, in a much anticipated announcement to an audience of over 10,000 people, Twitch announced the launch of their new annual convention TwitchCon.
Slated to run on September 25th through the 26th, TwitchCon will be held at Moscone West, in Twitch’s hometown of San Francisco. Details remain extremely sparse at the moment, and so far this seems largely focused on just announcing the event. But this Twitch convention will surely be one of the biggest new conventions to grace the west coast.
Many still underestimate the power of Twitch. A streaming service that allows gamers to broadcast their gameplay to hundreds if not thousands of people around the world, Twitch has grown vastly in both popularity and use in the gaming community. It makes the careers of many an online entertainer/personality, and Twitch helps pay their way with a unique subscription model that is surprisingly popular with most users. Amazon was on board as well, and bet their confidences in Twitch’s streaming capabilities and budding future by aquiring the company for a sweet $970 million USD. That’s no joke, and Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch – which remains highly controversial in many circles – has made Twitch the biggest online media competitor versus the likes of Google and their enterprise of YouTube, which rivals Twitch in its popularity in the gaming sphere.
So what is Twitch going to have at TwitchCon? Nobody knows quite yet. Currently, Twitch is hosting a website for the convention, where users can sign up for email updates, as well as giving contact info for exhibitors to host booths. A new convention space, especially one related to the Twitch ecosystem, will no doubt be very popular with many of the largest games on the market. League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, Minecraft, and many more games are consistently within the top 10 games being viewed on Twitch, often times with 5000+ people watching, and sometimes numbering near half a million viewers during large events. It’s possible that game developers and publishers will want to find a home at TwitchCon by opening booths to get some of that sweet Twitch attention.
TwitchCon 2015 lives! Sept 25-26 in San Francisco. YES!http://t.co/Cs0HPUjrBe@twitchconsfhttp://t.co/UQjh4it3Ym pic.twitter.com/l597Y0deur
— Twitch (@Twitch) February 20, 2015
But more importantly, TwitchCon will likely work out best for Twitch broadcasters. Vidcon, started by the Vlogbrothers, remains one of the most popular conventions related to YouTube, selling out in the first few minutes of open-ticket purchasing several years in a row. Vidcon is a place to not only learn about YouTube as a business and content generation as an industry, but also for content creators to rub elbows with one another as well as interact with die-hard fans. TwitchCon will likely serve a similar purpose for the Twitch eco-system, especially for extremely popular and mid-tier streamers who have sizable followings and want to take their fan interaction to the next level. Without proper venues for interacting with Twitch streamers, they are generally most accessible within their online chats. Having a real-life venue to go meet and greet with Twitch’s most popular personalities will likely make many a fan extremely happy.
If you want to check out what little details there are related to TwitchCon, go to the official website here. Otherwise, read up on the implications of Amazon’s ownership of Twitch here.
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