Game and In-game Sales Discontinued

Effective November 27, 2018 we are discontinuing the sale of games and in-game items via the “Buy Now” buttons shown on a streamer’s channel page. All game publishers participating in this program will be notified.

Why are we making this change?

While our goal was to provide viewers a way to easily support streamers by purchasing games and in-game items directly from Twitch, we found that this feature as implemented did not provide most streamers with significant additional revenue. We are discontinuing this feature to invest in other ways to help viewers obtain games and in-game items directly on Twitch while supporting streamers – including through Extensions on Twitch like Amazon Blacksmith, which allows viewers to support streamers through purchases of games and other items.

Does this affect any games, in-game items, or Twitch Crates that were purchased, claimed, or awarded on Twitch?

No one who purchased a game or in-game item will lose access to their content. Any games, in-game items, or Twitch Crates purchased, claimed, or awarded will continue to be available. The Twitch Entitlement Service (TES) will be still available for game publishers to check for entitlements on Twitch; therefore, in-game content purchased on Twitch will still be redeemable by linking Twitch accounts to game accounts. All unopened Twitch Crates will be automatically opened on November 28, 2018, and the items inside those crates will continue being available.

Does this affect free games with Twitch Prime?

This does not affect the free games and in-game loot that is regularly made available to Twitch Prime users.

If you still need to complete onboarding to receive payment from Twitch, or you need to update your banking or tax information we have on file, please follow the steps below.

To setup or update your company’s bank information:

  1. Go to the Amazon Developer Portal at https://developer.amazon.com, and click on “Sign In” in the top right corner.
  2. If your company already has an account on the Amazon developer portal, have someone with an Administrator role for your company login. If your company does not have an account, click on “Create your Amazon Developer account” and complete the steps.
  3. Click “Developer Console”, then “Settings”, then “Payment Information” from the menus.
  4. Follow the instructions to submit updated bank information.
  5. Once the bank information is submitted and saved, follow this link: https://developer.amazon.com/mycid.html.
  6. Copy and paste the information on this page, or take a screenshot, and email it back to Twitch via devpayments@twitch.tv. This will allow us to verify your information is setup correctly.

Once you hear back from Twitch, you must take the Twitch Games Tax Identity Interview. Twitch will be unable to pay out any royalties to your company until you complete this information. To complete the interview, you will need your U.S. tax identification number and/or foreign (non-U.S.) income tax identification number.

  1. Go to the Amazon Developer Portal at https://developer.amazon.com.
  2. Have someone with an Administrator role for your company login by clicking on “Sign In” in the upper right corner.
  3. Click “Developer Console”, then “Settings”, then “Tax Identity” from the menu.
  4. In the section titled “Twitch Games Tax Identity Interview”, click on the “Enter the Twitch Games Tax Identity Interview” button. NOTE: Be sure you take the “Twitch Games Tax Identity Interview”, which should be third in the list of interviews.
  5. Follow the instructions to complete the Twitch Games Tax Identity interview.
  6. Depending on your country of residence and the information provided, it may up to five business days for the interview to process.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your Twitch representative or email developers@twitch.tv.

Does this mean we can expect the discontinuation of the related pubsub topic?

And thus we should unlisten on it on the same date?

We will discontinue the pubsub topic, but later in December.