Twitch and 'Rock Band' Developer Announce Karaoke Game "Twitch Sings"

Streaming giant Twitch and developer Harmonix -- the makers of Rock Band -- have announced a collaboration that will see the pair working together on a karaoke livestreaming game dubbed Twitch Sings.

The surprise announcement comes way of Emmett Shear, CEO and co-founder of Twitch, during the opening keynote of TwitchCon earlier today.

Pitched as a brand-new type of game and experience "that's made to be streamed," Twitch Sings is a dedicated app that allows streamers to play a karaoke game with their viewers. How it works is that while streamers sing different songs, their viewers can use special chat options to start things like light shows on the virtual stage and requests different songs. Users can also propose unique challenges for the streamer and other similar interactions.

According to the aforementioned Shear, the audience is a key component to the experience.

"There are many games and genres that are better with Twitch, yet I think we're just starting to scratch the surface of what's possible when everyone wants to play together," said Shear. "We believe in a new category of game that's made to be streamed, where the audience isn't just nice to have, they're crucial to the experience, where the driver's seat is big enough for your whole community. So we teamed up with Harmonix and built a game ourselves."

The CEO continued:

"We knew karaoke would be the perfect place to start. It's live, it's always entertaining and when it really gets going the line between the crowd and the stage just disappears completely. With Twitch Sings you can sing your heart out and share your performance across Twitch, or perform duets with your community. And being in the crowd is just as much fun as holding the mic, and just as important. In chat you can request the next song, cheer to activate light shows on stage and give your favorite streamers fun challenges to tackle."

According to Twitch, Twitch Sings will come packing hundreds of different songs and features that will provide for a one-of-a-kind experience.

Twitch Sings is currently in closed beta, with Twitch taking sign-ups on its website for streamers that would like to participate. The game currently only supports PC and iOS, but an Android version is also in the works.