With its recently announced YouTube Gaming, YouTube aims to enter the expanding market of watching gamers play video games online and compete with the monolithic Twitch.tv. YouTube plans to differentiate its service by creating a central hub for all things gaming and by including a wider breadth of gaming content outside of live streaming.
It is a time like no other for watching video games online. E-sports, where professional gamers compete against each other, has a huge following: Nearly 205 million have watched or competed in eSports; tournaments have been broadcasted on ESPN; and prize pools have reached nearly $14 million. Touting over 100 million unique monthly viewers, over 40% of all live streaming viewership, and having recently been acquired by Amazon for nearly $1 billion, Twitch has been at the spearhead of the growing market. Its competitors, namely services like Hitbox.tv and Azubu.tv, are not making a dent in Twitch s strong grip on the market.
But, as YouTube says, a new player has entered the game. Described as A YouTube built for gamers, users will be able to stream at a high rate of 60fps, use a DVR function, and have their live streams be automatically converted into a YouTube video for later viewing.
While former e-sports commentator and current head of YouTube s gaming division Ryan Wyatt considers the Twitch.tv comparisons superfluous, the two services are clearly in direct competition with each other. Aiming to cultivate the biggest community of gamers on the web — all in one place, what sets YouTube Gaming apart from Twitch is that not only will gamers be able to live stream and watch e-sports competitions, but also watch other content ranging from video game-related cooking shows and original video game animations. YouTube will also be taking advantage of its large and decorated array of video-on-demand content by integrating it with its new live stream function to create a central hub for all things gaming.
You re going to be able to go to League of Legends game page and see all the great content that s there, said Wyatt in an interview with Business Insider. VoD, e-sports, live-streams, the top-five plays. There s no place on the Internet where you can do that, other than the YouTube Gaming app.
YouTube Gaming is expected to launch this summer, and Ars Technica has an extensive hands-on piece with the service. Though YouTube Gaming looks to be the most promising and competitive opponent Twitch has faced thus far, Twitch does not seem too concerned. Twitch s official Twitter account posted a tweet poking fun at Google s failed initiative to compete with Facebook through Google+ while also catering to its audience by using an Internet meme.
. Welcome Player 2. Add me on Google+.
Photo from YouTube s official blog
