Twitch teams up with Harmonix to develop a streaming karaoke game

Twitch is teaming up with Rock Band developer Harmonix to bring Twitch Sings, a streaming karaoke game, to the platform.

Announced during TwitchCon last week, CEO and co-founder of Twitch Emmett Shear described Twitch Sings as a “new category of game that’s made to be streamed," explaining how the audience is integral to the experience.

The partnership makes a lot of sense, considering how Harmonix has experience in developing music-oriented games and karaoke is a performative activity best enjoyed with an audience. 

However the announcement brings forth a few questions: How are the devs over at Harmonix monetizing Twitch Sings, if at all? Did Twitch invest in Harmonix or help fund the game?

More specifically are there any new, interesting dev features of Twitch that were specifically implemented for Twitch Sings?

Gamasutra has reached out to Twitch in hopes of answering these questions, and will update when a response is received. 

The game is currently in closed beta, but Twitch is accepting signups on its website for streamers who are interested in taking part.