New 'Twitch Plays' App Crowdsources Video Gameplay

A new app lets thousands of viewers control how a game is played on the video-game streaming platform Twitch.

Developed by Overwolf, a gaming startup that creates PC game apps, Twitch CrowdPlay lets you anyone to host your very own "Twitch Plays" play-through on the popular Twitch.

"Twitch Plays" refers to the type of crowdsourced video game play-through where viewers of a Twitch broadcast participate in controlling the game by inputting commands — up, down, left right, etc. — into Twitch's chat box

The phenomenon started in February when a Twitch broadcaster decided to create a channel called Twitch Plays Pokémon. More than 100,000 viewers tuned in to watch, play and passionately contribute to the play-through of childhood classic Pokémon Red. Some fans even created cult religions and mythologies about the randomness caused by playing a game with a combined 1.16 million people over 16 days Read more...