4 ms·

The YouTube Gaming app shuts down this week

64 points by gcatalfamo 7y ago

point78 7y ago
White text on black background....really...
dzonga 7y ago
1 million x reason not to stay loyal to any google products. they get killed in a flash
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
sriram_sun 7y ago
Wasn't gaming a thing during this year's IO?
- serf 7y ago
  the old silicon valley adage : 'move fast and break people's trust in your brand's product longevity, thus alienating anyone from actually using it.' I might have got that saying wrong..
  - xmprt 7y ago
    No kidding. After Google killed Inbox, I'm going to be a lot more wary of trying out Google's new products. That and releasing half baked products like Allo/Duo are why no one uses Google's new products and then years later Google ends up killing it for not reaching enough people.
awa 7y ago
So they are just killing the alternate UX, the content is still there just needs to be accessed via the main youtube website
xemdetia 7y ago
I feel like this article misses the point when it describes the lack of content creator/viewer interest as not being a market leader. The rhetoric from the gaming content creator YouTube community is that the money for twitch is just flat superior to whatever you could make on YouTube in the current market, and they can collect what they can by dumping the VOD's on YouTube. I didn't see any evidence that YouTube Gaming did anything to fix that or any of the other problems that seems to be plaguing the individual/small group content creators when it comes to Content ID, mature video tagging, or probably some things I am forgetting. I think if the YouTube Gaming property did more to separate itself identity-wise from YouTube (even if it was just YouTube under the hood) it would have stood more of a chance. Maybe it was a good test pool for live streams, chat, and that sort of thing but it felt like those things were already started (a search indicates it was kicked off YouTube Live in 2011 where YouTube Gaming started in 2015).
- Shivetya 7y ago
  Plus many content creators in games have been driven off youtube proper by DMCA accusations. So some twitch streamers have completely abandoned their YT side simply because it is far easier to harass them on that channel than within twitch itself. Youtube is a damaged brand in many of these content creator's eyes then throw in that twitch pretty much hit a home run last summer/fall with the ability to easily gift subscriptions and many streamers saw their numbers explode. Once you have an audience if you are in popular categories you can get sponsorship for playing specific games and that is money not easily recouped by changing platforms.
medof 7y ago
I had never even heard about this product until just now. I guess it was just too irrelevant.
- da_chicken 7y ago
  Same. I watch Twitch and YouTube videos, too.
kiran-rao 7y ago
RIP Inbox. You won't be forgotten.
- Rebelgecko 7y ago
  it still works (more or less) if you use an old APK
jaimex2 7y ago
The subscriber + hours viewed restriction to monetize combined with rampant copyright take down trolling, an algorithm that hides your content from viewers and adpocalyses just made the Youtube gaming platform not worth anyone's time. Why would anyone put up with that mess when Twitch is simple, works well and is designed from the ground up for game streaming?
beckler 7y ago
I'm pretty sure they're only killing this because it's going to compete with Stadia whenever it gets released.
- hndamien 7y ago
  Stadia/YouTube stands a very good chance at being a Twitch killer. Gaming is natively digital, so linking that data in a native way will make life very hard for Twitch.
  - slightwinder 7y ago
    Twitch is more than just game-streams and overall works well now. What relevant difference can stadia make? AFAIK it's just a cloud-service, not something that fundamentally would change the game-experience?
    - hndamien 7y ago
      You can directly link into and share game states. I presume that a variety of interactive observer modes would also be fairly trivial to accomplish based on their architecture. This experience will be significantly different to normal YouTube and Twitch. It won't kill Twitch, but the viewing method will be different and likely eat into their market.
9erdelta 7y ago
For one thing, gamers who used to upload recorded game play to YouTube left _years_ ago to live stream on Twitch. Second, YouTube's treatment of creators I'd say has people primed to go anywhere else. So too little, too late, wrong attitude towards the people making content. Finally, Mixer at least has a few cool features, such as Hype Zone. Pretty sure YouTube gaming didn't offer anything appealing/innovative.
charleshan 7y ago
Another addition to https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
- kyrra 7y ago
  Except not really, as it was just rolled into the main app and website. https://www.youtube.com/gaming https://www.youtube.com/gaming
  - aiiane 7y ago
    There's a lot of stuff listed on that site that didn't actually go away, just got rolled into something else or rebranded. It's not very picky about what it chooses to list as "killed".
    - xmprt 7y ago
      Also according to Google, Inbox was rolled into Gmail but I think most people would agree that Gmail still lacks a lot of the important features that pulled people to Inbox in the first place.
ben_jones 7y ago
I actually used Youtube Live (as a viewer) a bit and found the experience inferior to Twitch.tv . You could see the effort of Google devs to clone the best features from twitch, but they just did a ~bad~ job. From the graphics/material design, chat, etc., none of it would have even breathed life if it didn't have Youtube/Google's userbase pushed into it. Google product owners need to ask themselves, would this business be viable without the artificial stimulus of existing Google users? GCP - yes. Youtube - yes. Youtube gaming - no.
niknetniko 7y ago
This is actually a shutdown that makes sense to me: why would it need a separate app/website? I don't think it was actually really useful for most people: * As a standalone gaming streaming service, I don't think it ever had the potential to dethrone Twitch, for various reasons already said by other commenter * On the other hand, if you are a heavy YouTube user, it doesn't add anything: almost all features are available in the main YouTube app. Basically, it always seemed redundant to me.
- midniteslayr 7y ago
  IIRC YouTube Gaming was created to establish streaming on YouTube. When it was created, they didn't allow streaming on the main YouTube app. That all changed in about 2015, when they started bringing the livestreams in to YouTube proper.
seem_2211 7y ago
Yeah, it's about time for Google to kill another product.
- byron_fast 7y ago
  What has Google killed other than Altavista?
  - jnbiche 7y ago
    Here you go: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
    - byron_fast 7y ago
      I mean killed in the market, not bought and shut down.
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.
Paraesthetic 7y ago
Google are getting very good at this whole shutting down of something which doesn't quite make the usage levels that they want even though it might be very popular. Surely this burning of the end user will get old to consumers at some point and they will go elsewhere.
bashwizard 7y ago
There's a youtube gaming app? Amazing.

64 points by gcatalfamo 7y ago

point78 7y ago

White text on black background....really...

dzonga 7y ago

1 million x reason not to stay loyal to any google products. they get killed in a flash

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

sriram_sun 7y ago

Wasn't gaming a thing during this year's IO?

serf 7y ago
the old silicon valley adage : 'move fast and break people's trust in your brand's product longevity, thus alienating anyone from actually using it.' I might have got that saying wrong..
- xmprt 7y ago
  No kidding. After Google killed Inbox, I'm going to be a lot more wary of trying out Google's new products. That and releasing half baked products like Allo/Duo are why no one uses Google's new products and then years later Google ends up killing it for not reaching enough people.

awa 7y ago

So they are just killing the alternate UX, the content is still there just needs to be accessed via the main youtube website

xemdetia 7y ago

I feel like this article misses the point when it describes the lack of content creator/viewer interest as not being a market leader. The rhetoric from the gaming content creator YouTube community is that the money for twitch is just flat superior to whatever you could make on YouTube in the current market, and they can collect what they can by dumping the VOD's on YouTube. I didn't see any evidence that YouTube Gaming did anything to fix that or any of the other problems that seems to be plaguing the individual/small group content creators when it comes to Content ID, mature video tagging, or probably some things I am forgetting. I think if the YouTube Gaming property did more to separate itself identity-wise from YouTube (even if it was just YouTube under the hood) it would have stood more of a chance. Maybe it was a good test pool for live streams, chat, and that sort of thing but it felt like those things were already started (a search indicates it was kicked off YouTube Live in 2011 where YouTube Gaming started in 2015).

Shivetya 7y ago
Plus many content creators in games have been driven off youtube proper by DMCA accusations. So some twitch streamers have completely abandoned their YT side simply because it is far easier to harass them on that channel than within twitch itself. Youtube is a damaged brand in many of these content creator's eyes then throw in that twitch pretty much hit a home run last summer/fall with the ability to easily gift subscriptions and many streamers saw their numbers explode. Once you have an audience if you are in popular categories you can get sponsorship for playing specific games and that is money not easily recouped by changing platforms.

medof 7y ago

I had never even heard about this product until just now. I guess it was just too irrelevant.

da_chicken 7y ago
Same. I watch Twitch and YouTube videos, too.

kiran-rao 7y ago

RIP Inbox. You won't be forgotten.

Rebelgecko 7y ago
it still works (more or less) if you use an old APK

jaimex2 7y ago

The subscriber + hours viewed restriction to monetize combined with rampant copyright take down trolling, an algorithm that hides your content from viewers and adpocalyses just made the Youtube gaming platform not worth anyone's time. Why would anyone put up with that mess when Twitch is simple, works well and is designed from the ground up for game streaming?

beckler 7y ago

I'm pretty sure they're only killing this because it's going to compete with Stadia whenever it gets released.

hndamien 7y ago
Stadia/YouTube stands a very good chance at being a Twitch killer. Gaming is natively digital, so linking that data in a native way will make life very hard for Twitch.
- slightwinder 7y ago
  Twitch is more than just game-streams and overall works well now. What relevant difference can stadia make? AFAIK it's just a cloud-service, not something that fundamentally would change the game-experience?
  - hndamien 7y ago
    You can directly link into and share game states. I presume that a variety of interactive observer modes would also be fairly trivial to accomplish based on their architecture. This experience will be significantly different to normal YouTube and Twitch. It won't kill Twitch, but the viewing method will be different and likely eat into their market.

9erdelta 7y ago

For one thing, gamers who used to upload recorded game play to YouTube left _years_ ago to live stream on Twitch. Second, YouTube's treatment of creators I'd say has people primed to go anywhere else. So too little, too late, wrong attitude towards the people making content. Finally, Mixer at least has a few cool features, such as Hype Zone. Pretty sure YouTube gaming didn't offer anything appealing/innovative.

charleshan 7y ago

Another addition to https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/

kyrra 7y ago
Except not really, as it was just rolled into the main app and website. https://www.youtube.com/gaming https://www.youtube.com/gaming
- aiiane 7y ago
  There's a lot of stuff listed on that site that didn't actually go away, just got rolled into something else or rebranded. It's not very picky about what it chooses to list as "killed".
  - xmprt 7y ago
    Also according to Google, Inbox was rolled into Gmail but I think most people would agree that Gmail still lacks a lot of the important features that pulled people to Inbox in the first place.

ben_jones 7y ago

I actually used Youtube Live (as a viewer) a bit and found the experience inferior to Twitch.tv . You could see the effort of Google devs to clone the best features from twitch, but they just did a ~bad~ job. From the graphics/material design, chat, etc., none of it would have even breathed life if it didn't have Youtube/Google's userbase pushed into it. Google product owners need to ask themselves, would this business be viable without the artificial stimulus of existing Google users? GCP - yes. Youtube - yes. Youtube gaming - no.

niknetniko 7y ago

This is actually a shutdown that makes sense to me: why would it need a separate app/website? I don't think it was actually really useful for most people: * As a standalone gaming streaming service, I don't think it ever had the potential to dethrone Twitch, for various reasons already said by other commenter * On the other hand, if you are a heavy YouTube user, it doesn't add anything: almost all features are available in the main YouTube app. Basically, it always seemed redundant to me.

midniteslayr 7y ago
IIRC YouTube Gaming was created to establish streaming on YouTube. When it was created, they didn't allow streaming on the main YouTube app. That all changed in about 2015, when they started bringing the livestreams in to YouTube proper.

seem_2211 7y ago

Yeah, it's about time for Google to kill another product.

byron_fast 7y ago
What has Google killed other than Altavista?
- jnbiche 7y ago
  Here you go: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/
  - byron_fast 7y ago
    I mean killed in the market, not bought and shut down.
dang 7y ago
Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

Paraesthetic 7y ago

Google are getting very good at this whole shutting down of something which doesn't quite make the usage levels that they want even though it might be very popular. Surely this burning of the end user will get old to consumers at some point and they will go elsewhere.

bashwizard 7y ago

There's a youtube gaming app? Amazing.