Twitch continues to the be the go-to site for video game streaming, and wants to provide players with even more capabilities. That’s why Amazon (Twitch’s owner) has recently decided to acquire Curse, another gaming video community.

This could be big news for the gaming world, and we’re eager to see just how much of an impact the acquisition of Curse will have on the market.

A statement from Curse reads: “Curse and Twitch are teaming up for a quest of epic proportions that will help gamers around the world connect, interact, and share information with one another more than ever before. We’ll have much more info to share as we go forth, and we’re excited for you to join us on this adventure!”

What is Curse?

Curse is a huge online gaming community that operates a number of sites and forums. Players from all over the world can connect over the platform, and there are over 30 million unique visitors every month. Curse is home to over 1000 gaming wikis up a mod service called Curse Client.

There is also a unique Curse desktop app that allows players to connect with their friends while they game. It is basically Skype for gamers, as users can share streams with friends, as well as offering them the ability to chat in game with their teams and raid groups.

Whereas Twitch is basically a video game streaming service, Curse is an entire gaming hub. The company offers players plenty of capabilities that are not available on Twitch, so bringing the two together could completely change online gaming community.

At the moment, we know little about Twitch’s plans for Curse. Industry spectators believe (and hope) that Twitch will keep Curse’s software intact, and only rebrand it under a its own name.

Implications for the Online Gaming World

Many members of the online gaming community state that Curse is no longer as relevant as it was when it was first launched in 2006. There are actually quite a few gaming chat services like Discord, Mumble and Team Speak – so Curse has dealt with plenty of competition lately. However, this will mark the first time that two gaming communities come together in such a big way.

Of course, YouTube Gaming was launched last year, but it was basically the same premise as Twitch – so, many gamers found themselves returning to Twitch shortly after giving YouTube Gaming a shot. It will be the main competitor for the new Twitch/Curse hybrid, but we’re sure that Twitch will continue to hold on to its majority market share.

We imagine that this acquisition will kick other gaming chat and streaming services into high gear. Mumble and Discord are likely to seek out the inclusion of additional gaming features, in order to better compete with the wide range of services that will now be offered by Twitch thanks to its acquisition of Curse.