Roger Fingas
Google officially launched YouTube Gaming on Wednesday, entering into direct competition with Amazon's Twitch for live and pre-recorded videogame content.
Although it incorporates all of the on-demand game content already on YouTube, the new platform places a stronger emphasis on live streams. Visiting the main website will show a list of active channels, and in fact automatically begin playing live videos (on mute) from a rotating carousel.
Search and sidebar menus offer options to track specific games or channels, the latter of which can be imported from existing YouTube subscriptions. The website also includes options uploading a video, or beginning a live stream.
Streams can run up to 60 frames-per-second, and offer real-time chat. To reach a broader audience, content can also be saved as on-demand clips for later viewing.
Google has also launched matching iOS and Android apps for the service. These are functionally similar to the website, minus recording and upload options. Users can however receive notifications when a favorite channel goes live, or push videos to media streamers that support Google's Cast protocol. As with the regular YouTube app, videos can be minimized to keep playing while browsing.
The iOS app is a free download, and runs on any device with iOS 7 or later.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
5 Comments
1 year until they kill it and not faze Wall Street. Damn, Google. Any viable original ideas?
This will die pretty quickly when "contentID" flags everything
When I read about this new Google product yesterday, I snickered as I remembered how Google has failed to beat or even match the scale of Amazon's products. Even though Google is often (and rightfully) praised for its cloud server abilities, Jeff Bezos has an unmatched team when it comes to AWS! Google is continuing to be a fast follower that is truly interested in making a lot of money fast instead of a lasting product similar to its Android partner Samsung.
I am wondering if Apple will provide game streaming capabilities in the "unofficial" new Apple TV next month. I think iOS/Mac OS X game developers would flock to the new capabilities, which would give Amazon a true gaming competitor this year. Linking an Apple TV App Store with game streaming capabilities would be the killer reason for upgrading to a new Apple TV. And, this time around, Amazon would not be able to easily pull the DOJ into this competition to stifle competition.
U.S. only.
I noticed this on my own yesterday or the night before. It was one of slowest, bloated pages I've visited on a computer (not handheld device). It was taking forever to load, so I closed the tab. The bulk of the Internet today is slow, bloated gimmick websites with unnecessary junk and scripting; this YouTube thing is just more of the same trash.