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Cheddar is the new home of crowd-controlled StockStream
Watching other people play video games is a big business. At any time, you can hop on Twitch and see gamers take on Demon's Souls, Pokemon, and even Sudoku. It's not all video games, either, with Let's Robot and Instapainting exploring internet-controlled robots. Last May, software developer Mike Roberts created StockStream, a Twitch channel that encourages viewers to vote on which stocks to buy or sell using Roberts' own $50,000 stock portfolio. Now, Roberts and his trading game have been acquired by Cheddar, the "millennial business news" network that broadcasts from the New York Stock Exchange. StockStream will continue, though its balance will double and the portfolio extended to " commodities, industry portfolios, indexes, and other asset classes," according to a Cheddar blog post.
Twitch wants developers to bake streaming directly into games
If Choice Chamber scratched the itch for audience participation in your Twitch streams, get ready for a whole lot more where that came from. The live-streaming juggernaut has announced Stream First, an initiative that it says is focused on making sure Twitch broadcasting is built into a game's design process from the outset rather than shoehorned in later in development. Future in-stream participation could include anything from viewers choosing what happens next, a la Twitch Plays, gaining in-game experience simply by watching your favorite streamer play your (new) favorite game and a host of others.
'Twitch Plays' directory makes it easy to find new games
The huge success that is TwitchPlaysPokemon gave rise to a number of other Twitch Plays games, and the video platform wants to make sure you can find them all in one place. If you can't get enough of the format but would like to try a new title, simply load its new directory to see a full list of games the community's playing. Just like in the original Pokemon version, you can still help control the outcome of the game by typing in commands the AI will follow in real time.
