It seemed almost certain that Google was going to buy Twitch, which is why it's so bizarre that it turns out that the search giant isn't the new owner of the streaming service, Amazon is. After dropping $970 million on Twitch, the retail giant is now the proud new father of the world's most popular game streaming platform.
"Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon," said Emmet Shear, CEO of Twitch in . "We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch."
Shear also thanked the fans and users of Twitch for helping shape it into a world changing tool for gaming.
There's been no word on whether Amazon plans to continue using Twitch's recent and certainly controversial, audio muting tool, which searches through everyone's videos on demand (not live streams) and mutes whole 30 minute blocks of content if it finds even a hint of a copyright protected song, even if that song happens to found in the game that the person is playing. Even publishers came out against this move, so hopefully Amazon puts the kibosh on that idea.
What do you guys think of this deal? Is it better or worse than if Google had bought it?
