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Podcasts Take Two
Amazon gets a Twitch, buys video game streaming service for $970 million
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Aug 26, 2014
Listen • 4:29
Amazon gets a Twitch, buys video game streaming service for $970 million
Amazon is betting big on the future of streaming video games online by purchasing Twitch.TV for $970 million, but will their investment pay off?
Kelly Kelley, who goes by the gaming pseudonym MrsViolence, streams her play on Twitch.TV for her many fans to watch.
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Amazon is betting big on the future of streaming video games online by purchasing Twitch.TV for $970 million, but will their investment pay off?

If you were sitting on a couch at home, playing video games, how much do you think someone would pay to watch you game? $10 a month? $5? If we had to guess, it would probably be around... $0.

Well, Amazon thinks that streaming video game matches online is worth about a billion dollars. That's about how much they paid for the site Twitch.TV, which does just that. Twitch has about 50 million monthly viewers who watch other gamers play each against other in everything from "Call of Duty: Ghosts" to "StarCraft II."

What's Amazon going to do with the service now that it has it? Well, they haven't said, but

- Senior Writer with CNET has some thoughts. He joins A Martinez to discuss the future of streaming video games online.

Listen to our other coverage of the business of  professional online video game matches on Take Two, here.