It’s a bit late in the game, but YouTube has the resources and brand-name cache to take on video game streaming juggernaut, Twitch, as it turns on the lights of its much anticipated game streaming service Wednesday.
YouTube Gaming is the new portal, separate from the Google-owned video giant’s regular video website, that will aim to capture the flags, hearts and minds of gaming’s streaming technorati, some of whom can make upwards of $8,000 per month just letting people watch them play video games.
Twitch is the 800-pound gorilla of the video game streaming world; in fact, YouTube tried to buy the service sometime before Amazon snapped it up. Will YouTube bring in both current customers as well as crushing Twitch in the process?
Gamers aren’t turning to magazines — or even websites — as much as they used to. These days, you’re more likely to find them on Twitch watching Let’s Play videos, Minecraft machinima, or streaming League of Legends matches. YouTube wants a slice of this delicious pie, and it’s created a whole new website to make it happen.
YouTube has pushed the live-streaming front-and-center on the YouTube Gaming homepage, which should go live Wednesday, August 26, and has a host of new improvements that cater to the gaming broadcaster.
Hopefully, it won’t just be console and Mac/PC gaming on YouTube, with third-party apps like Reflector 2 filling in the video capture gap for mobile gaming devices like the iPhone. While other services like MobCrush exist in this space, it’s not hard to see YouTube crushing all the competition in one fell swoop, provided it gives potential and current video game streamers the tools they need to get their videos out there in real time.
Head on over to the YouTube Gaming site tomorrow (for both US and UK folks) to see when the curtain goes up. We’ll be checking it out, too, for sure.
Source: YouTube
Via: The Verge
