Bad news for would-be Twitch streaming celebrities who expected the service to be available on Xbox One this Friday: it's just been delayed into next year.
Microsoft announced on Xbox Wire that the Xbox One's integrated Twitch functionality, which will allow players to broadcast live gameplay, isn't yet ready for public consumption.
"We know the ability to instantly broadcast gameplay is something the gaming community is excited about, and we are too," the Wire post read.
"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."
Better late
That's pretty vague, and unfortunately it leaves the companies a lot of wiggle room to delay Twitch streaming on Xbox One well into next year.
But better a late app that works than a broken one right away, right?
Anyway, this explains why we couldn't see the Twitch streaming app when we checked out the console's user interface and hardware features earlier this month.
When Twitch streaming does launch on Xbox One it will only be available to users with an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Load up on Monster energy drinks
For anyone still scratching their head about what we're talking about, Twitch is a streaming video service which focuses on gaming. In its announcement, Microsoft said that Twitch attracts more than 45 million global users every month.
The Twitch app for Xbox One will also feature new media achievements, including one for staying up all night watching. The 10 below will be available when the service launches:
- Watch through the night to earn the Night Owl achievement
- Join 100,000 viewers simultaneously watching a broadcast on Twitch to earn Standing Room Only
- Watch one hour of live video on Twitch to become a Newcomer
- Watch 10 hours of live video on Twitch for Competitive
- Watch 100 hours of live video on Twitch for Best Viewer
- Watch one hour of live video on Twitch channels that have less than 10 viewers to be the Hipster
- Watch 10 hours of live video on Twitch channels that have less than 10 viewers and become the Talent Scout
- Max Bandwidth is received by watching a single channel on Twitch for more than eight hours consecutively
- Around The Clock is exactly that, just watch at least one minute of live video on Twitch in each hour of a full day
- Prime Time, simply: watch a total of 10 hours of live video on Twitch between peak viewing hours from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m., on a weekday
We always wanted to be awarded for our binge viewing...
