IGDB API V4 is coming!
As you may know IGDB became a part of Twitch last year, and we are now bringing our API closer to this new ecosystem. It’s an exciting time for the next iteration of the IGDB API! One of the goals of IGDB has always been data sharing in order to empower our end users, this is especially true when it comes to the API. By moving closer into the Twitch Developer Portal we will be able to share more data with more of you. Furthermore we also took this opportunity to update some of the endpoints & fields of the API so we could focus on quality of data. Below are the changes coming and the new features you can expect.
Moving into Twitch Developer Portal
We are moving the API accounts from our current API gateway (3Scale) to Twitch Developer Portal. This will help us have better control over the API as its own product, with more dedicated internal tools moving forward. This will mean a change for existing users on how you authenticate, and will be applicable to all new users going forward. Starting today, 21st of September, you can join the Twitch Developer program to access the IGDB API. If you wish to continue using the API you will need to have migrated from V3 to V4 no later than by the 26th October 2020. During the final week leading to this deadline, we will issue planned periodic outages for users still authenticating with API V3, with the first one issued on 19th of October recurring daily until the 26th of October and lasting one hour.
We have prepared documentation to help you migrate into the new infrastructure as seamlessly as possible: https://api-docs.igdb.com/#upgrading-to-v4-from-v3
We will have a transition period starting on the 21st of September and ending on the 26th of October 2020 where both versions of the API are available in order to give our users time to make any necessary changes to their projects. In order to continue using the IGDB API uninterrupted we recommend that you register on Twitch Developer Portal and update your authentication logic as soon as possible.
Removal of ALL request limits!
With our API, we have always had a mindset of sharing data in order to empower and improve the gaming industry as a whole. We believe it doesn’t matter whether or not you are a simple hobbyist or a major company developing a commercial product, by sharing the data, everyone benefits. For this reason we made the API free for everyone with our previous iteration. This led to many more of you trying it out and developing exciting applications and research. With this same mindset, we are now happy to announce that we are removing all request limiting from the API! Despite being free until now we had a restriction of 50k requests. In its place we will introduce a rate limit of four requests per second to help us manage the load on our infrastructure. This should lead to much greater freedom of use cases for any development needs you have.
From the 26th of October onward, all users will be able to experience a free and now more open API than ever before.
What else is changing?
Update to the URL
Additionally the syntax for the URL is changing. In order to future proof upcoming changes coming to the API we are changing how the API URL is structured. With V4 for the new format is as follow:
api.igdb.com/v4/
For example, accessing the games endpoint would change from: api-v3.igdb.com/games to api.igdb.com/v4/games.
Changes to Endpoints
While working on these changes, it became apparent that many parts of our API did not provide the level of quality that we desire. Focusing on high quality data is primordial for IGDB, and as Improving ALL of these pieces of data is a monumental task, so we have decided to remove the substandard endpoints and data points for now. We hope to add many of these back again in the future, but we want you to know that if you are accessing data through our API that it is of the highest quality, updated and supported.
As part of this migration process we are also sunsetting the as api_status endpoint, as well as other selected endpoints. As we are removing request limits from the API, the api_status endpoint will therefore serve no purpose anymore and will be terminated on the 26th of October. You can find the full list of changes to the data structure on the API Documentation.
If you have any questions or details you would like to know more about you can reach out to us directly in our active Discord community.
FAQ:
- Will the API remain Free? Yes absolutely, 100% free for anyone to use.
- I have a custom API plan with a limit higher than 50k, does this change anything? All request limits will be removed regardless of the plan or use case.
- I want to use the API for a commercial project, is it allowed? Yes this is possible. We offer commercial partnership for users with a commercial need in their projects. Please reach out to us for more details on that process.
- I already use the API for a commercial project, does this change anything? No, however please reach out to us in order to get a commercial agreement signed if you don’t already have one.
- By moving into Twitch Developer Portal, does this mean I also gain access to Twitch’s APIs? Yes, you can use the same account and credentials with Twitch APIs.
- What happens if I don’t migrate over by the 26th of October? You will no longer have access to the IGDB API after that date. Your project will resume as intended as soon as you migrate over to IGDB API V4 via Twitch Developer Portal.
- Why am I getting errors when authenticating with 3Scale? If you are getting errors between the 19th of October and 26th of October it is because you have not yet migrated over. Planned outage will happen to users remaining during the final week of the migration.
- What do I need to do in order to migrate over to IGDB API V4? You can find a detailed step by step guide to migrating into Twitch developer portal over in our documentation.
Happy coding!
IGDB Team
