Sony and live streaming platform Twitch are getting their geek on this Saturday, with plans to stream a whopping 30 hours of gaming in support of charity.
The Gaming4Life stream gives gamers a chance to band together in support for youth cancer program You Can.
Over 30 hours, streamers will take part in gameplay, challenges, cosplay, gaming trivia, and live music performances, broadcast for free on Twitch.tv.
Twitch, owned by Amazon since 2014, has gone from strength to strength in the six years since launch. In Australia alone, the gaming-focused brand attracts a mammoth 1.3 million unique viewers, monthly.
The viewership is generous, too – in 2016, charitable donations made via Twitch reached a massive US$25.3M.
Twitch Australia’s Lewis Mitchell says the magnanimity of the community was born through the platform’s continuing dedication to building a place where fans feel at home.
“I think people in the gaming community- any community where people feel welcome, are always going to be generous”, Mitchell said.
In the past, Twitch has been host to bizarre events such as Twitch Plays Pokemon, which let viewers use the service’s chat function to share control over the classic Gameboy title.
Twitch Plays Pokemon was a runaway success, and generated a flurry of memes and off-platform community involvement, with no prodding from the company.
Mitchell says like Twitch Play Pokemon, the tenor of Gaming4Life will be determined by the Twitch community, which he hopes will be taken up with gusto.
“When [Twitch] get involved in things, it’s really just a push in the right direction, or making sure that people are booked in to the right times, the rest is up to them” .
The Gaming4Life stream is live from 9am AEST on the Saturday 29th April on www.twitch.tv/6T4bites.
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