Streaming service Twitch has acquired the Internet Games Database. The IGDB is basically the IMDB of videogames, a directory of information about games ranging from their ratings, genres, and themes to crowdsourced data about how long they take to beat, and lists of reviews (which annoyingly include include pre-release previews and impressions as well). Digital storefronts can pay to use IGDB's API, which is how the database makes money.
Previously Twitch's game directory has been based on Giant Bomb, which means that searching for streams of specific games has been pretty spotty—especially when it comes to smaller indie games. With the IGDB as their search backend, hopefully that will improve.
In a post on Medium about the acquisition, IGDB product owner Jerome Richer De Forges wrote, "First things first: the API is here to stay, and we are merging our premium and free tiers into a single new free tier. Going forward, that means that you will now contribute information to Twitch as well as IGDB and the thousands of apps, services, and websites that are powered by this information."
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