Honestly to get up and running and officially streaming all you really need is an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 and an internet connection. These systems have integration with either Twitch (PS4) or Mixer (Xbox) at the push of a button, after a little initial setup of course.
No fancy camera, microphone or green screen required. These tools will of course only help your stream and potential viewership, but if all you currently have is one of the mentioned current gen consoles, then just roll with it. The best time to start is right now.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that building a viewer base will not happen overnight. The way I see it, the key is consistency in streaming. Of course life gets in the way of video gaming, but try and set a somewhat consistent schedule. Once you are live, just be yourself, relax and have fun! Interact with viewers the best you can. If you are limited to a chat pad...or worse..just the Xbox controller, then you may struggle a bit as you would have to take yourself away from the game play. If you plan to stream with a camera or microphone, then I would highly recommend picking up a chat pad controller accessory or using a USB keyboard.
The first step will take place on a PC or mobile browser. You will want to head over to Mixer.com and ensure that you link your Microsoft account. This will ensure that you are linked up on Mixer since there won't be any login information on your console. Make sure to take care of this step first to avoid any account problems in the future.
Once linked up on Mixer, head over to the Xbox Guide, by pressing the Xbox button. Scroll down to Broadcast second to last icon which looks like a satellite symbol. Select 'Broadcast your game'. Your game should be recognized, but feel free to include a title for your broadcast. I typically like to keep it short and sweet and perhaps try to add some humor to the title with some hashtags.
Ensure that the mixer link is correct. You can then scroll down to add mic, camera, chat and party chat options if you have these available. Again, these are all optional, but highly recommended. If you have a Kinect hooked up or storage away somewhere, don't forget that you can use the camera on it. If you are into multiplayer games, you probably already have a headset and microphone that you can use as well.
Co-streaming is also a native feature on Xbox for you and up to three other content creators. The will feature all the streamers on one channel. Its a great way to see various points of views and also see what the party is up to in real time. Sometimes just hearing the party in chat doesnt cut it.
Select start broadcast.
Streaming PC games is also quite simple with the right software, but this will be covered in a future post.