YouTube Gaming is Google’s answer to popular video game streaming service Twitch.
Just over a year ago, there was a pretty intense bidding war between tech giants Amazon and Google over video game streaming service Twitch. Google lost the bid – reportedly due to some anti-monopoly shenanigans – and thus went to work building it’s own alternative – YouTube Gaming. Well now, YouTube Gaming is almost here, as Google has announced the service will kick off tomorrow.
Starting tomorrow, you can simply head over to the YouTube Gaming website to get started. It will let you see who is streaming what, as well as allow YouTube users to set up their own streams, in a similar fashion and layout to the current Twitch.tv homepage. You’ll also be able to download a smartphone app for streaming on the go.
A beta version of the new live streaming dashboard is also launching tomorrow. The new dashboard gives greater flexibility to streamers – allowing them to turn on and off their streams at will. Streaming on YouTube Gaming is done using HTML5, and, unlike Twitch, streamers can enable a “DVR Mode” that buffers the last four hours of a stream and allows viewers to rewind. Anyone who has watched any YouTube livestreams – like Nintendo Directs – should know and appreciate the feature.
Twitch has made a name for itself in recent years, serving not only as a way for fans and gaming personalities to offer coverage and commentary of games, but for major game companies to broadcast tournaments and special events. YouTube Gaming will be its first major competitor, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.
Source: Ars Technica
