Live streaming video platform Twitch is about to get some competition after Google announce plans to launch YouTube Gaming on Wednesday 26 August.
Schematics are out; gauges are gauging and the prototype is ready to rock n roll. Twitch is about to have a fight. YouTube Gaming is about to step into the ring.
Google will launch YouTube Gaming on Wed 26 Aug in a bid to create the ‘go to destination for anything and everything gaming.’ It’s great news for everyone involved in the world of gaming, including the poker community, because nobody likes a tiger living in the woods with nothing but rabbits.
YouTube Gaming will feature over 25,000 pages of gaming information. Content will be sorted by genre, and by content of video, making it a one-stop shop for very specific gaming content retrieval. A beta-version of a new live streaming dashboard will also be launched. The difference between this baby and Twitch is one of flexibility. YouTube Gaming aims to remove the more rigid streaming system that is currently in place at Twitch, and replace it with a HTML5 stream when you want system.
The new stream will operate at 60fps, each stream will contain a custom URL for ease of sharing, and streamers will be able to chat with other streamers/members of the community during livestream events.
Twitch was launched in 2011 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, the co-founders of Justin.tv, one of the earliest sites to stream user content on the web. The pair raised $35m in funding to launch the site, and Amazon swooped in and picked them up in a deal worth a reported $970m last summer.
The acquisition was a surprise to many after news circulated that Google has agreed terms to purchase Twitch in an all-cash deal worth in excess of $1bn. It was later reported that the deal fell through over potential antitrust issues. Google acquired YouTube for $1.65b in 2006.
The new YouTube Gaming channel will be available wherever YouTube is available.
Let the fight begin.
