Live sex cam site Chaturbate recently announced that its streaming platform will now support certain pre-approved video games, and is calling on developers to give their permission to add more to that growing list. Honestly, it was only a matter of time.
The current list of approved games is only a few pages long, and from what I can tell predominately features indie sex games, though no exclusively. One of the supported titles, for instance, is an arcade-style sports game about ax throwing called Log Jammers that came to Steam Early Access last year.
Broadcasters can now officially play video games on Chaturbate! Head to the broadcast page and add any approved game to your broadcast to begin playing. If you are a game developer, add your game to the approved list here: https://t.co/ArJ0WOmena pic.twitter.com/7Ld4uLriaC
— Chaturbate Updates (@cbupdatenews) September 28, 2021
Several developers have already responded to Chaturbate’s update announcement on Twitter saying they will add their games now as well, including a lewd rhythm game called SpunkStock and the action platformer Future Fragments. Given some of the draconian restrictions on Twitch around streaming games featuring sexual content, Chaturbate could be one avenue for developers of those games to try to spread awareness of them.
Prior to the update, Chaturbate users who included video game content on their streams would receive stern warnings from the platform about violating third-party content rules, likely because Chaturbate itself didn’t want to invoke the ire of video game companies up in arms about their content being shown alongside streamer nudity and other NSFW activities. The pre-approved list gets around that.
If anything, it’s surprising that it took Chaturbate this long to try and more directly integrate games into its platform. Like Twitch, Chaturbate allows users to tip the people they’re watching. Unlike Twitch, Chaturbate models can set up vibrators and other sex toys to be activated precisely when users tip, gamifying the whole interaction.
It remains to be seen whether any bigger game studios will take the cam site up on its offer. Somehow, I don’t think FIFA 22 or Tales of Arise will be featurable anytime soon.