YouTube Challenging Twitch w/New Streaming Service

[Srgnt_Ballistic]

Sources: TechnoBuffalo.com Engadget.net

 

Original Source: DailyDot.com

"YouTube is reportedly gearing up to take on Twitch game streaming" - Engadget
"YouTube taking on Twitch with new livestreaming service" - TechnoBuffalo

YouTube has been under fire recently with their announcement of stricter enforcement of sponsership and product placement policies along with the recent launch of Vessel, which I'm sure everyone here should be familiar with by now. YouTube seems to be prepping to launch a new game streaming service to go head to head with Twitch.

A huge number of YouTubers have been taking to Twitch to stream gaming and even non-gaming content, such as WAN Show. They often make videos and post them to YouTube to get their substantial audience there to go watch.

 

A lot of Twitch streamers utilize YouTube to post the stream archives, montages and other content. I've personally heard a lot of people noting, "I stream on Twitch just because YouTube streaming/chat/delay is horrible."



It seems very difficult to get the much desired sub-button on Twitch in order to monetize beyond the gracious donations from followers. Sponsorships from companies ranging from PC parts, console peripherals, gaming drinks, gaming glasses, etc... are also popular. YouTube partnering is much easier these days and as of now all you have to do is maintain good standing to be able to stream on YouTube. YouTube has recently tried to inject itself in the middle of direct creator-to-advertiser relationships to ensure they get their cut of any money generated via their platform



YouTube has tried pushing a gaming-centric streaming service before, but it fell short and was abandoned my pretty much everyone in favor of Twitch. There were also a lot of talks of YouTube buying out Twitch and integrating it into the already expansive YT/Google ecosystem.

But YouTube has over 1 billion users along with the internet clout and financial backing of Google. You can bet someone searching for LoL tournaments on Google will be directed to YouTube sponsored events before Twitch.

However, Twitch is no slouch either. They've grown to become the premiere game streaming service in the world and are now owned by Amazon, which hosts pretty much the entire internet and also has quite a bit of money to throw around (Amazon Prime Membership including Twitch Turbo would be quite nice).

Having two platforms to choose from should be a good thing for pretty much everyone involved. It means each will have to entice streamers, viewers and advertisers with better splits and features. Will either try to force streamers to stream exclusively on their platform? Will streamers be able to double dip and cast to both platforms at the same time and possibly double their revenue?



There's a lot of questions. YouTube seems to be going the way of Vessel and pulling over a number of bigger and well established streamers and eSports organizations. They'll probably also get some of their larger YouTube stars that haven't been big into streaming to start on their platform.

Of course only time will tell the tale. But it'll be interesting to see these two (really 4) massive entities going at it for game streaming supremacy.

-SrgntBallistic

[TechJohnson]

This is certainly something to keep an eye on. As large as Twitch currently is in the gaming community, I feel that YouTube has the potential to build something large. I'll be following this topic, that's for sure!

[Atmos]

Hasn't youtube, like, supported streaming special things now for a while? Of course, allowing anyone to do that might be cool, but how can i leave twitch? Been on that site for years... Cough justintv cough

 

Anyway, looks cool. Might see some big things out of it.

[Razarza]

Maybe if Google would allow a decent bitrate and not compress the fuck out of the streams it wouldn't be too bad.

[killerdann12]

As long as youtube can fix that awful 1 minute 30 second delay and fix out the bugs it will be equal to twitch imo now just have to find a way to make people want to use youtube if they already stream on twitch