Who knew that Twitch was game for original scripted programming? The online social video service is a natural destination for gamers who stream live content of their conquests and competitions but now the apparatus (and its live audience) are also being used by a series called Artificial to create meta entertainment…

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins wracked up 226.85 million streams via Twitch this year, more than doubling his nearest competitor and aggregating more views than the second and third-place finishers combined. TEO Analytics and esportsobserver calculated the total viewing hours across the top ten Twitch channels for the entire…

UPDATED with more info, suspect and victim’s ID’s: Officials in Jacksonville, FL have confirmed that two people were killed in addition to the gunman during a mass shooting at a Madden 19 video game tournament Sunday in the northern Florida city. Eleven others were reportedly wounded. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office…

Your young gamers may have some new online friends in popular titles like Fortnite, Overwatch and World of Warcraft – some of the world’s hottest porn stars. The adult stars have turned to video games as a brand-builder, streaming their online gaming sessions out to the world as an incentive to lure more followers…

Cinedigm announced the launch today of the free gaming- and eSports-centered WHAM Network on Twitch, online and on mobile devices. It will cover industry news and the celebrity gaming scene, provide gamer-focused original series and offer in-depth coverage of live events. The new 24/7 channel will put a spotlight on a…

Social video service Twitch laid off about 25 people as it adjusts staffing to position the company for its next phase of growth. Esports consultant Rod Breslau reported the layoffs on Twitter, saying employees from the Twitch Studios and in the community and marketing teams lost their jobs yesterday. The process…

TV critics got a sneak peek at Amazon’s new pilots, including I Love Dick and a reboot of The Tick this afternoon at TCA. All of the pilots will be launched on Amazon on August 19 and, in a first, on August 31 will premiere for 24 hours on Twitch, the video platform and community for gamers. The critics also got a…

After months of negotiating with Google’s YouTube unit for an acquisition, popular online-video site Twitch Interactive instead was bought today by Amazon, for a reported price of $970 million. The site is only three years old, but exploded in size as a go-to place for people to watch others play and talk about…

The Google deal for Twitch.TV, rumbled around in Silicon Valley for months, now finally is cinched at around $1 billion — but not officially announced, according to the tech investor site VentureBeat. If true, the deal would bring into the Google fold one of the biggest sources of online video traffic that isn’t…