Amazon Promises Not to Change Twitch Following Buyout

Amazon's $970 million acquisition of popular game-streaming service Twitch yesterday will not lead to a fundamental change in what the platform is all about. That's according to Michael Frazzini, vice of president of Amazon Games, who spoke alongside Twitch CEO Emmett Shear last night during a "town hall" meeting about what the deal really means.

"Twitch is absolutely doing a great job and we don't want to change that at all," Frazzini said during the broadcast (via The Daily Dot). You can watch a replay right here.

As part of the deal, Twitch will become an Amazon subsidiary. But Shear was quick to point out that, "The exciting thing about the Amazon deal is I get to keep doing what I do." He went on to say that aligning with Amazon was the right move because it means the video site now has better access to resources like engineering talent, backend infrastructure, and partnerships with game creators and advertisers.

"The reason I thought Amazon would be a good home for Twitch is that we had a really shared vision around where gaming industry is going," Shear said, noting that the internal cultures at Twitch and Amazon also match up nicely.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is also optimistic about the deal. "Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon," he said in a statement. "Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community."

Twitch is the largest live-streaming website in the United States by a wide margin, according to a report released this spring, and has expanded into non-gaming ventures, like streaming concerts. Amazon has become aggressive about gaining a foothold in the video game industry, attracting talent like the designers of Portal and Far Cry and purchasing Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games.

Previously, it was reported that Google and Microsoft were bidding to acquire Twitch.

What do you think about Amazon's acquisition of Twitch? Let us know in the comments below!

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