Game sales on Twitch are now live, offering free "Twitch Crate" rewards and more

Twitch has announced that the ability to buy games directly through its platform, a new feature that was first revealed back in February, is now live. The option will enable developers to make special offers to fans who are watching their games being played on the platform, and will also let partnered streamers earn money off of purchases made through their channel pages. Buyers will also be rewarded with free "Twitch Crates," which will contain randomized drops of items for Twitch including emotes, chat badges, and Cheer bits.

Beginning today and continuing over the next week, roughly 50 games and "related in-game content" will be made available for purchase through Twitch, with titles including For Honor, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Smite, Tyranny, Atlas Reactor, Broken Age, Firewatch, and Warframe. Purchases can be made from live Twitch channels or a game's 'details' page, and can be downloaded and played through either the Twitch Desktop App or publisher-run services like Uplay.

A Twitch Crate will be awarded with every purchase of $5 or more, and Twitch will hold a weekly "Twitch Crates Gear Giveaway" draw throughout April as well, with a grand prize of more than $500 worth of streaming equipment. (You can also go for a "no purchase required" entry right here.) Games available through Twitch are currently only priced in US dollars, but Twitch aims to bring in "localized purchase experiences" soon.

Purchases made through Twitch are fulfilled by Amazon, and it seems to work smoothly enough once your accounts are connected appropriately; to buy For Honor, for instance, you'll need to connect both your Twitch and your Uplay accounts to your Amazon account.

More information about buying games on Twitch can be found on the Twitch Blog.

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Terraria: Otherworld update reveals a new 'development partner'

It's been a couple of years since the announcement of Terraria: Otherworld, the followup that is not a sequel to the 2011 crafting-and-survival game Terraria. Developer Re-Logic hasn't had much to say about it since, but today it took to its forums to share some "important news." The good news is that the game is still in the works; the bad news is that co-developer Engine Software has been dropped from the project for reasons unknown, and that means it may take a little (or maybe a lot) longer than expected to get things done.

"Our team had a clear vision for this game—one that we shared with all of you with much shared excitement—and, as much as we hate to say it (and in spite of all of the reforms we tried last year) the current state of the game is still equal parts far from that vision and well behind schedule," Re-Logic wrote.

"As a result, we have made the decision to move on from having Engine Software continue development of Terraria: Otherworld. Re-Logic has possession of the game (code, art, sounds, etc.) as it exists today, and we have been examining the array of options available to us to get TOW to a place to where we can confidently deliver on the vision and expectations we all have for this game. After taking a good hard look at everything, we feel that a new and fresh start/direction is the only way Otherworld will ever reach its full potential at this point."

Pipeworks, which has been working since last year on the console and mobile version of Terraria, has now been brought on as the "development partner" on Otherworld. The two studios will "examine the entire game, from top to bottom, to see how it fits with our high expectations and core vision for this project," and while Re-Logic didn't commit to updated release timing, it did warn that the "quiet period" will likely go on for awhile longer while Pipeworks gets brought up to speed. It also promised that "a full refresh of all of the Otherworld public-facing locations" is on the way—even the Terraria: Otherworld logo is changing.

"Come whatever may, quality is simply not something we are willing to compromise on to make a quick buck. It may be painful in the short term, but our sincere hope is that it will pay off for everyone in the long term," the studio said. "Clearly, had we known this would be the scenario way back then, we would have held off on announcing the game until a later time—but such is game development. That said, we are really happy and confident with the new team and new plan—and cannot wait to get back on track."

Re-Logic said it would share more "very soon," but added that it "will not delve into some areas out of either respect or confidence or the unknown."

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Overwatch cheat maker ordered to pay $8.6 million in damages to Blizzard

Last summer, Blizzard filed a lawsuit against German cheat programme maker Bossland for "copyright infringement, unfair competition and violation of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision". Last month, we learned that the Overwatch developer was seeking upwards of $8.5 million in damages, despite Bossland's resistance, and now it appears a California court has ordered the latter to pay $8.6 million.

As reported by Torrentfreak (via the BBC), Blizzard argued that Bossland had "reverse-engineered and otherwise altered its games without permission". While attempting to have the case dismissed, Bossland did not defend itself in court but was nevertheless found guilty of 42,818 counts of copyright infringement—a case which follows similar court rulings in the UK and Germany. According to Torrentfreak, Bossland also faces around $177,000 in legal costs beyond the substantial court-ordered charge.

Despite the ruling, the BBC reports that the Bossland website is still active—and still boasting the tagline "botting is not against any law"—however, having tried to access it just now, UK browsers are met with the following message:

"On 16th March 2017, Bossland GmbH, and its directors Mr Zwetan Letschew and Mr Patrick Kirk admitted, in and for the purposes of proceedings before the High Court of England and Wales, that the sale of its software which it sells as Honorbuddy, Gatherbuddy, Demonbuddy, Hearthbuddy, Stormbuddy and Watchover Tyrant, to any person resident in the United Kingdom, constitutes an infringement of Blizzard’s intellectual property rights and an inducement to players of Blizzard’s games to breach their agreements with Blizzard."

"Accordingly, Bossland and its directors are no longer permitted to advertise or offer for sale such software to UK residents."

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MSI taps Corsair to liquid cool its GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk cards

All-in-one liquid coolers have become popular alternatives to air cooling because they're relatively easy to install, sometimes offer better performance, and require zero maintenance (unlike regular liquid cooling). They're not just for CPUs, either—MSI announced a pair of new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk cards that have been outfitted with AIO liquid coolers from Corsair.

The GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk and Sea Hawk X are the same except for the clockspeeds, with the latter sporting faster frequencies in both Gaming and OC modes.

Here is a look at the Sea Hawk X's clocks:

OC Mode: 1,569MHz base, 1,683MHz boost
Gaming Mode: 1,544MHz base, 1,657MHz boost
Silent Mode: 1,480MHz base, 1,582MHz boost

And here are the clocks on the regular Sea Hawk:

OC Mode: 1,506MHz base, 1,620MHz boost
Gaming Mode: 1,493MHz base, 1,607MHz boost
Silent Mode: 1,480MHz base, 1,582MHz boost

Both cards sport a full-coverage cooler attached to an AIO kit based on Corsair's Hydro Series H55 design. It consists of a 120mm aluminum radiator with a quiet fan attached. This is what keeps the GPU cool, while the memory and VRM are both air cooled in each card.

There's also a solid metal backplate on both Sea Hawk cards. This provides rigidity, if that's something you're concerned about.

Both cards also stick with Nvidia's reference power requirements, requiring 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe connectors. And as for display outputs, they come with HDMI 2.0, dual-link DVI-D, and three DisplayPort 1.4 plugins.

MSI did not say when these cards will be available or for how much.

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