Twitch and Harmonix released Twitch Sings to the public today. The free-to-play karaoke game has built-in Twitch streaming, nearly 2,000 songs, and Twitch chat integration. The game was announced during TwitchCon 2018 and was available to a small set of streamers in a closed beta prior to launch.
Twitch co-founder and CEO Emmett Shear announced the Twitch Sings release during the TwitchCon Europe keynote on Saturday. The karaoke game works similar to Harmonix’s Rock Band or SingStar. Twitch’s co-development of the game means that it connects directly to a user’s Twitch account, meaning they can stream seamlessly from within the game. Capture cards and applications like OBS are still available to use, as the game features relatively robust support for video inputs.
Chat integration can have streamers’ community requesting songs, and choosing challenges for the streamer. One such challenge is for the streamer to sing with their tongue out, which can lead to hilarious clips. Twitch Sings lets players create and customize avatars for when they perform, or while they’re in the crowd. A duet mode can let people sing songs, although it is asynchronous. One player records their part, and then others can perform the second.
Twitch Sings has nearly 2,000 songs at launch, although they are all “in the style of” covers. The sound-alikes get the job done and going with covers probably helped get so many songs in the game. The catalog covers a breadth of artists, genres, and time periods with everything from OutKast to Etta James and The Beatles covered. Some songs were chosen specifically by the team, such as A-Ha’s “Take On Me,” and the library will continue to grow and evolve as Harmonix and Twitch support the game.
Twitch Sings is only available on Windows at the moment, with no plans to bring the game to other platforms. If you want to check it out and start performing, the game can be downloaded here.
Top image: Twitch Sings ad featuring narindipity.
