Last week there was chatter surrounding Twitch’s announcement of a new feature that allows streamers to stream only to their subscribers, thus creating exclusive/premium content.
However, the new feature isn’t going to fly per the Terms of Service of popular gaming companies such as Blizzard Entertainment, Riot Games, Steam, and others.
Streamers playing games such as Overwatch or League of Legends, for example, may be at risk of seeing their game accounts punished if they choose to stream live exclusively to their subscribers via the next Twitch feature.
According to DotESports, there are a number of terms and legal pages that outline the rules, and how subscriber-only streaming is prohibited. Here are some examples, per the report:
Companies such as Epic Games, Nintendo, and Bethesda were also mentioned in the article. The article goes on to point out that; ” Putting gameplay content behind a paywall is using another company’s intellectual property for direct profit, which is an illegal use of a brand. That’s also different from the conditional profit of running ads or receiving donations. Twitch creators can expect the same rules to apply for other games that they play. “
