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A YouTube built for gamers

192 points by cleverjake 11y ago

robertcorey 11y ago
I think this will be a successful for the following reasons: Previous Twitch competitor (Owned3D) was successful in gaining viewership by poaching streamers from twitch with better deals.It seems like it was pretty easy for personalities to transfer their fan bases over. Many twitch streamers already post highlights of their streams to youtube so they've already established a presence there. I would also think that youtube will be better at serving video advertisements and handling copyrighted materials on stream (currently twitch handles copyrighted music by muting archived videos that contain it, whereas youtube places an advertisement for the song at the bottom of the video).
- ygra 11y ago
  What YouTube does with copyrighted music depends on what the rights holder tells them to do. Most of the time in Germany the video is just unviewable. I'd rather prefer muted instead of unable to watch.
  - giancarlostoro 11y ago
    Would be interesting if YouTube allowed users to upload videos with dual audio tracks or something, or as you said, mute the video altogether (which at times they do - but I guess not when it's a region based block).
- aaggarwal 11y ago
  Agreed, Its a brilliant move by YouTube, I am surprised they didn't bring this earlier. People were already using YouTube to show their game footage for a long long time.
- nailer 11y ago
  YouTube shuts down videos with footage Nintendo games in it automatically. They have an awful reputation for one sided copyright enforcement amongst game streamers.
  - jsmthrowaway 11y ago
    YouTube does that at the request of Nintendo due to their ad revenue program[0]. You're leaving out a bit of important context that completely undermines your point. The problems with Nintendo are not limited to the situation you describe, and they've made a few attempts to make it better and usually made it worse. The long and short of it is that Nintendo has a rather unique position in the industry that because they created the game, they are entitled to a kickback of revenue you make on your own content. If you are not enrolled, they treat it just like a Content ID claim, as if I were to upload my favorite album and attempt monetization. Content creators and Nintendo do not get along in general. Ask Rooster Teeth, TotalBiscuit, PewDiePie, Angry Joe, and others. This has been extensively covered by everyone I named. Back to the point, YouTube is entirely absolved of fault, and to claim otherwise betrays misunderstanding. [0]: https://r.ncp.nintendo.net/guide/ https://r.ncp.nintendo.net/guide/
    - pjc50 11y ago
      I don't think the copyright law on who owns footage of games is entirely settled?
      - baldfat 11y ago
        It really doesn't matter while the game companies as a whole have figured out that the best thing for their business is if the game is popular on Twitch equals a lot more sales. Once companies see streamer as hurting game sales that would make this an issue again.
    - nailer 11y ago
      > YouTube does that at the request of Nintendo due to their ad revenue program[0]. Agreed, but I left that out because I thought people on HN already know and expect Nintendo to be a bit over the top about 'protecting' their IP. That doesn't mean Google have to kowtow to their demands, or that Google don't have the power to defend Youtube game streamers.
  - magicalist 11y ago
    > YouTube shuts down videos with footage Nintendo games in it automatically No it doesn't. It has an awful reputation for Nintendo games because if you enable monetization on a stream of a Nintendo game, Nintendo takes all ad revenue unless you join their "Nintendo Creators" affiliate program. And I'm not sure what you mean below about YouTube could be defending streamers. Streaming games isn't at all established as fair use, and odds point to it not actually being transformative enough for them to be (nearly everyone's arguments revolve around streaming being a huge benefit for game sales so companies should allow streamers to make money off them to motivate them).
- baldfat 11y ago
  Own34 was first it actually was Justin.tv/Twitch.tv poaching streamers from Own3d. Own3d had a money problem with not enough income and more money going out due to popularity. Streamers were owed tens of thousands of dollars when they closed up shop.
Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
I've done a lot of bitching about small websites where the devs didn't bother to test in Firefox. But from Google? Seriously?
- giancarlostoro 11y ago
  Context: https://gaming.youtube.com/coming_soon https://gaming.youtube.com/coming_soon Their coming soon page is a mess under Firefox.
mattryanharris 11y ago
I don't see it succeeding unless they get Riot Games to exclusively stream on YouTube. That amount of views League of Legends brings to Twitch is crazy.
- barney54 11y ago
  Google can do some exclusives for tournaments and I have to imagine they are already in talks with some top streamers on Twitch to come to YouTube. This would be a good time to be a streamer with a lot of fans to get in a little bidding war between Amazon and Google.
  - sombremesa 11y ago
    Amazon doesn't have YouTube's experience, and is somewhat short-sighted when it comes to catering to content creators. Maybe Twitch employees could help.
- forthefuture 11y ago
  Riot already streams LCS on youtube.
  - dogma1138 11y ago
    Haven't been following LCS for 2 years or so, but they used to stream it on multiple platforms at the same time. I don't think Google can pay RIOT enough to go exclusive, especially since they need to be able to stream and get revenue from multiple regions, especially China.
barney54 11y ago
So how does Hacker News think that Twitch and YouTube Gaming are going to work with VR. Seeing the gamer and their reactions is part of the appeal of Twitch, but that changes with VR where you can't see someone's eyes. Amazon (who paid nearly $1 billion for Twitch) and Google really believe there is a real future watching people play games, but one real challenge seems to be the VR integration.
- dm2 11y ago
  I don't think that streaming to YouTube is as easy as direct streaming to Twitch, maybe that's one of the areas they are focusing on. Streamers will make sacrifices for their audience. If the technology isn't available to stream VR well then they won't do it. What would be really cool is a game that supports streaming to YouTube 360, where it records a view similar to what the Jump camera rig does in real life.
- GauntletWizard 11y ago
  How do you think VR will change streaming? The developer versions of oculus are already just an oddly rendered 1080p video stream; You can play back a recorded oculus video stream to the glasses, and it's a little weird because you're not moving your head as the perspective changes, but not actually that bad. If you're looking for something more interactive, replay videos already exist for a wide variety of games, with the ability to change perspectives. Simply mapping the full system state to a local engine for rendering will allow you to view any perspective of the VR game character. You move your head, the perspective changes, but the 'body' of your character is still in the streamer's control.
- Joona 11y ago
  I don't think seeing someones _eyes_ matters that much. Reactions are much more than that. One of the most popular streamers (Lirik) does not use a camera at all, so all you get is his voice and the gameplay. VR itself is a bit different though, as not everyone will have Rift/etc, so either you are streaming to a very limited audience, or there has to be a way of capturing the footage before it's transformed, and even then, it's just one eye, so the viewers are missing stuff.
- 11y ago
deleted 11y ago
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zitterbewegung 11y ago
The money isn't in the ads or the subscriptions it is in the tips. I wonder if they have a system for that.
- calebegg 11y ago
  Youtube already has that. It's called "Fan funding": https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6052077?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6052077?hl=en
  - InclinedPlane 11y ago
    Wow. That is incredibly half-assed considering how important it should be. The contrast with twitch's system or with patreon or kickstarter could not be larger.
    - timothya 11y ago
      Out of curiosity, what does Twitch do differently than this?
      - zanny 11y ago
        They have a big sub button, and give streamers tools to modify the experience for subs. You can give them sub only emotes that they can use everywhere, or you could put your chat in sub only mode, or you could make recorded videos that are sub only. Even that is not coming close to realizing the potential of such crowdfunding, but it beats a random tip button that sometimes doesn't even show up.
        kbar13 11y ago
        well to be fair subscriptions != donations
- deleted 11y ago
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- 11y ago
joeyspn 11y ago
The logo they've picked is way toooo similar to Ludei's logo (HTML5 Games firm)... http://is.gd/lUCdMN http://is.gd/lUCdMN Rip-off?
cinbun8 11y ago
Youtube's goal would be to get people over to their gaming product instead of heading over to twitch. Plans for monetization come later. That should not be a concern considering twitch does not stream properly for many users. My friends on Steam share the same opinion (At least the ones in Asia). Streaming any game in real time and getting enough folks to watch it is still a problem that needs a solution with more polish. Twitch does not keep up and `Steam streaming` does not work half the time. I'd stream games on gaming.youtube.com if they did a better job at it and have a product focused around that. I can foresee a future where youtube can get those eyeballs on `gaming.youtube.com` instead of twitch.tv. Youtube is already popular for gaming reviews. Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazon.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazo...
- chrischen 11y ago
  A huge problem is bandwidth, especially if you need to play a game like an online first person shooter which needs every bit of bandwidth it can get.
  - thezilch 11y ago
    It's unlikely an FPS needs high bandwidth -- typically less than the lowest-quality, 2005-age YouTube-video. Even with a high-tick game, you're looking at topping out at around 35KB. Yes there are going to be gamers in countries with less-developed internet, but I'd wager many streamers are pulling a minimum of 1MB+ and more likely 5-10MB+ egress.
    - minot 11y ago
      I think I have a decent connection and I only have 60 mb down and 30 mb up. it is good enough to stream 1080p 60fps to YouTube. YouTube promises two (well one actually) change that I welcome. It will allow one URL which I presume will go to the live broadcast and it promises that you won't have to create an event every time you start broadcasting. With these two changes, I am ready to switch to YouTube at any time.
craked5 11y ago
The problem i see is that Twitch already has a very strong culture in the gaming community. You see Twitch emotes being used everywhere on the internet and i started seeing people on my campus use it on everyday language. I know its silly, but the chat and all the "underground" culture around it is a major player in Twitch's success.
- dogma1138 11y ago
  Kappa!
ejcx 11y ago
One thing that would be neat is if google rolled out their own streaming software. I've streamed a little on twitch for fun (mostly programming and some gaming) and I found all of it pretty bad. Another neat thing is how much Replay value people's streams could get instantly being on youtube. I just checked twitch, and nobody really watches previously recorded streams. The most watched recorded videos this month in Gaming Talk Shows was only a little over 1000, while League of Legends most was in the 400s. Maybe youtube can really increase and monetize that for streamers. I would also be super interested in streaming other things too, which is just now starting to get popular on twitch. I would love to be able to stream me programming and interact with other computer folk that way. I've done it on twitch but didn't stick with it long enough to really give it a chance.
- asillystory 11y ago
  Streamers already use YouTube by editing their VODS into more digestible pieces rather than have one long X hour recorded stream.
- legohead 11y ago
  I was previous streams all the time, since I'm usually available when my favorite streamer is. It's also kind of convenient because you can skip around to the good parts. The one thing I really hate missing is the chat though. I wish they'd save chat history and show it alongside saved streams.
  - s3bast0m 11y ago
    try this extension ReChat for Twitch™ https://www.rechat.org/ https://www.rechat.org/
ken47 11y ago
Twitch has already won over most of the potential audience for computer game streaming. Computer gamers tend to be a loyal bunch, and they know that Twitch is a site by and for gamers. If I had to guess, YouTube Gaming will have trouble making headway.
- batiudrami 11y ago
  The problem is Twitch infrastrucutre is not good enough to stream properly in many countries. A 1080p/60fps stream has only about a 6Mbit bitrate but in Australia will not work, even on a connection ten times as fast. Plus, without a special agreeement that only top streamers have, Twitch takes 50% of subscription money - I'm sure Google can afford smaller margins to lure streamers over. The problem they will face is not that gamers are loyal so much as for many people "live video game broadcast" is Twitch, so people are unlikely to notice live streams if they're elsewhere. This is solvable though - most streamers upload their VODs to YouTube anyway so they can easily notify users when a streamer is live.
  - ken47 11y ago
    1) I'm sure with Amazon's resources behind them, Twitch will get their infrastructure up to snuff in more remote regions of the world. 2) Amazon could surely afford to compete with Google on sub share % if need be. Furthermore, it's not just a matter of offering a higher sub share. It's (sub share) * (# of subs). Twitch has a very good head start on the latter.
  - jebblue 11y ago
    I'd guess Google should buy Twitch then but I'm just a coder not a business person.
    - Bhullnatik 11y ago
      It's almost sure that they tried, but the deal didn't go through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazon.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazo...
frik 11y ago
So will the auto tag and transfer old videos with gaming content to the new site? Will uploading gameplay content on regular YT be prohibited than? I would prefer if YT stay one entity and Google should just improve their "Search" on Youtube! It's weird that the search on Google in the video tab is a lot better than the search on Youtube directly. Youtube search functionality hasn't been improved since 2005 or so.
revanx_ 11y ago
Am I the only one that dislikes twitch because you need adobe flash player to do anything and is on generally a javascript bloated website?
- Lynbarry 11y ago
  Have you tried using livestreamer? You can just ignore the bloated website and watch streams in vlc with it. It also allows me to have my 30 tabs open and watch a stream on the second monitor without troubling firefox.
  - revanx_ 11y ago
    Had no idea this exists, thanks!
- pestaa 11y ago
  When watching streams, put /popout at the end of the URL. It'll strip away the navigation and chat (basically everything but the video player.)
  - revanx_ 11y ago
    The player itself requires Adobe flash to run and I haven't had that installed since youtube started experimenting with HTML5.
spdy 11y ago
Its all about the money they are willing to invest. If streamers with a viewership of 2-3k people on twitch can maintain/increase their income they will probably inclined to leave twitch. And on the other side you need culture to make it work. Aliases instead of real names / emotes etc. It will be a success the viewer base of yt in every demographic is to big but maybe not in the ballpark google wants it. Twitch will survive this and has to innovate which they dont really do atm.
downandout 11y ago
I don't doubt that this will gain at least some traction. You can never count Google out. But it is somewhat disappointing to see Google, which used to pride itself on innovation, making dim copies of others' products long after the market has been invented and grown. I'll stick with Twitch.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  > But it is somewhat disappointing to see Google, which used to pride itself on innovation, making dim copies of others' products long after the market has been invented and grown. It is somewhat disappointing to see people constantly complain about the cross-pollination of ideas.
  - downandout 11y ago
    Based on the post it doesn't appear that this is a quantum leap inspired by Twitch. It's a dim copy, an also-ran. The only reason it has any hope at all is because Google is behind it.
jotm 11y ago
First time I hear of Twitch, but I watch a lot of those play-through videos on Youtube (20 minutes of that crap saves me days of wasting money and time playing the actual game :-D)...
bookwormAT 11y ago
I don't understand why Google can not roll this out internationally from the start. Why only US and UK? The content is not subject to old copyright contracts, which is typically the argument not to launch something in Europe and its crazy copyright situation. And twitch is available everywhere. If Google wants this to become a success, shouldn't they roll this out to as many people as possible and hope for network effects?
- codewithcheese 11y ago
  Maybe because their algorithms to organize the videos by game and type have only been optimized for English US and UK submissions.
  - Mithaldu 11y ago
    Unlikely. Many european gamers from various countries game exclusively in english, since that is the original language for almost all games. Heck, the most famous game streamer is a Swede and all of his content is in (horribly squeaky) english.
    - LMAlVvQjSGj 11y ago
      Only AAA titles are translated into anything but English, and even those are just translated into a handful of languages. I know people from all over Europe, they all expect gaming content to be English. I'm Norwegian, but I run all my software in English. Linux distributions are the only ones having trouble with my 'strage' locale and language setup, but that's fully due to incompetent devs.
  - bookwormAT 11y ago
    this would explain why there are only submissions in english. But not why those submissions are blocked in other countries.
- rjaco31 11y ago
  How is the copyright situation in Europe crazier than in the US? (genuine question)
tdkl 11y ago
Do we still need G+ to comment on YouTube Gaming ?
scotty79 11y ago
Imagine how would it all play out if game producers enforced their copyright as strictly as Hollywood or Music industry does. Namely no game footage allowed unless you pay as as much as we want because it's derived work. I doubt there'd be Twitch or YouTube Gaming.
IsTom 11y ago
Will make you use your real name? If so I don't see this going very far.
seivan 11y ago
I hope they make official streaming clients to make the process much easier. I had issues with streaming Mac OS with both sound as well as microphone input. Would also like to see a #GameDev channel. Was pretty cool to see Unreal show their stuff over Twitch.
DigitalSea 11y ago
It took long enough for Google to cater to gamers. After Twitch was acquired for a large sum of money, it was only a matter of time before Google decided to go after gamers. Most gamers have Youtube presences anyway, if Google can take all of the great features and things gamers like about Twitch and then add some additional features on-top, it'll be a success for them no doubt. Curious why they're launching in the US and UK first though. Couldn't find anything that explained why the delayed release, surely it's not because of copyright reasons.
- tehbeard 11y ago
  The major hurdle is goning be cultural rather than tech or features. Youtube comments vs. Twitch audience
mangeletti 11y ago
I'm glad to see competition in the space, but I have to admit that I read this article as, "We at Google noticed that Twitch was gaining quite a bit of traction, so we decided to use our behemoth size to see if we could successfully copy them.". I think Google might be starting to get scared. There are many threats to their search and web advertising hegemony, including Apple's announcement to include an ad blocker in iOS9. Google is quickly realizing that their long term survival might be in YouTube.

192 points by cleverjake 11y ago

I think this will be a successful for the following reasons: Previous Twitch competitor (Owned3D) was successful in gaining viewership by poaching streamers from twitch with better deals.It seems like it was pretty easy for personalities to transfer their fan bases over. Many twitch streamers already post highlights of their streams to youtube so they've already established a presence there. I would also think that youtube will be better at serving video advertisements and handling copyrighted materials on stream (currently twitch handles copyrighted music by muting archived videos that contain it, whereas youtube places an advertisement for the song at the bottom of the video).

ygra 11y ago
What YouTube does with copyrighted music depends on what the rights holder tells them to do. Most of the time in Germany the video is just unviewable. I'd rather prefer muted instead of unable to watch.
- giancarlostoro 11y ago
  Would be interesting if YouTube allowed users to upload videos with dual audio tracks or something, or as you said, mute the video altogether (which at times they do - but I guess not when it's a region based block).
aaggarwal 11y ago
Agreed, Its a brilliant move by YouTube, I am surprised they didn't bring this earlier. People were already using YouTube to show their game footage for a long long time.
nailer 11y ago
YouTube shuts down videos with footage Nintendo games in it automatically. They have an awful reputation for one sided copyright enforcement amongst game streamers.
- jsmthrowaway 11y ago
  YouTube does that at the request of Nintendo due to their ad revenue program[0]. You're leaving out a bit of important context that completely undermines your point. The problems with Nintendo are not limited to the situation you describe, and they've made a few attempts to make it better and usually made it worse. The long and short of it is that Nintendo has a rather unique position in the industry that because they created the game, they are entitled to a kickback of revenue you make on your own content. If you are not enrolled, they treat it just like a Content ID claim, as if I were to upload my favorite album and attempt monetization. Content creators and Nintendo do not get along in general. Ask Rooster Teeth, TotalBiscuit, PewDiePie, Angry Joe, and others. This has been extensively covered by everyone I named. Back to the point, YouTube is entirely absolved of fault, and to claim otherwise betrays misunderstanding. [0]: https://r.ncp.nintendo.net/guide/ https://r.ncp.nintendo.net/guide/
  - pjc50 11y ago
    I don't think the copyright law on who owns footage of games is entirely settled?
    - baldfat 11y ago
      It really doesn't matter while the game companies as a whole have figured out that the best thing for their business is if the game is popular on Twitch equals a lot more sales. Once companies see streamer as hurting game sales that would make this an issue again.
  - nailer 11y ago
    > YouTube does that at the request of Nintendo due to their ad revenue program[0]. Agreed, but I left that out because I thought people on HN already know and expect Nintendo to be a bit over the top about 'protecting' their IP. That doesn't mean Google have to kowtow to their demands, or that Google don't have the power to defend Youtube game streamers.
- magicalist 11y ago
  > YouTube shuts down videos with footage Nintendo games in it automatically No it doesn't. It has an awful reputation for Nintendo games because if you enable monetization on a stream of a Nintendo game, Nintendo takes all ad revenue unless you join their "Nintendo Creators" affiliate program. And I'm not sure what you mean below about YouTube could be defending streamers. Streaming games isn't at all established as fair use, and odds point to it not actually being transformative enough for them to be (nearly everyone's arguments revolve around streaming being a huge benefit for game sales so companies should allow streamers to make money off them to motivate them).
baldfat 11y ago
Own34 was first it actually was Justin.tv/Twitch.tv poaching streamers from Own3d. Own3d had a money problem with not enough income and more money going out due to popularity. Streamers were owed tens of thousands of dollars when they closed up shop.

Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago

I've done a lot of bitching about small websites where the devs didn't bother to test in Firefox. But from Google? Seriously?

giancarlostoro 11y ago
Context: https://gaming.youtube.com/coming_soon https://gaming.youtube.com/coming_soon Their coming soon page is a mess under Firefox.

mattryanharris 11y ago

I don't see it succeeding unless they get Riot Games to exclusively stream on YouTube. That amount of views League of Legends brings to Twitch is crazy.

barney54 11y ago
Google can do some exclusives for tournaments and I have to imagine they are already in talks with some top streamers on Twitch to come to YouTube. This would be a good time to be a streamer with a lot of fans to get in a little bidding war between Amazon and Google.
- sombremesa 11y ago
  Amazon doesn't have YouTube's experience, and is somewhat short-sighted when it comes to catering to content creators. Maybe Twitch employees could help.
forthefuture 11y ago
Riot already streams LCS on youtube.
- dogma1138 11y ago
  Haven't been following LCS for 2 years or so, but they used to stream it on multiple platforms at the same time. I don't think Google can pay RIOT enough to go exclusive, especially since they need to be able to stream and get revenue from multiple regions, especially China.

barney54 11y ago

So how does Hacker News think that Twitch and YouTube Gaming are going to work with VR. Seeing the gamer and their reactions is part of the appeal of Twitch, but that changes with VR where you can't see someone's eyes. Amazon (who paid nearly $1 billion for Twitch) and Google really believe there is a real future watching people play games, but one real challenge seems to be the VR integration.

dm2 11y ago
I don't think that streaming to YouTube is as easy as direct streaming to Twitch, maybe that's one of the areas they are focusing on. Streamers will make sacrifices for their audience. If the technology isn't available to stream VR well then they won't do it. What would be really cool is a game that supports streaming to YouTube 360, where it records a view similar to what the Jump camera rig does in real life.
GauntletWizard 11y ago
How do you think VR will change streaming? The developer versions of oculus are already just an oddly rendered 1080p video stream; You can play back a recorded oculus video stream to the glasses, and it's a little weird because you're not moving your head as the perspective changes, but not actually that bad. If you're looking for something more interactive, replay videos already exist for a wide variety of games, with the ability to change perspectives. Simply mapping the full system state to a local engine for rendering will allow you to view any perspective of the VR game character. You move your head, the perspective changes, but the 'body' of your character is still in the streamer's control.
Joona 11y ago
I don't think seeing someones _eyes_ matters that much. Reactions are much more than that. One of the most popular streamers (Lirik) does not use a camera at all, so all you get is his voice and the gameplay. VR itself is a bit different though, as not everyone will have Rift/etc, so either you are streaming to a very limited audience, or there has to be a way of capturing the footage before it's transformed, and even then, it's just one eye, so the viewers are missing stuff.
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zitterbewegung 11y ago

The money isn't in the ads or the subscriptions it is in the tips. I wonder if they have a system for that.

calebegg 11y ago
Youtube already has that. It's called "Fan funding": https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6052077?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6052077?hl=en
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  Wow. That is incredibly half-assed considering how important it should be. The contrast with twitch's system or with patreon or kickstarter could not be larger.
  - timothya 11y ago
    Out of curiosity, what does Twitch do differently than this?
    - zanny 11y ago
      They have a big sub button, and give streamers tools to modify the experience for subs. You can give them sub only emotes that they can use everywhere, or you could put your chat in sub only mode, or you could make recorded videos that are sub only. Even that is not coming close to realizing the potential of such crowdfunding, but it beats a random tip button that sometimes doesn't even show up.
      - kbar13 11y ago
        well to be fair subscriptions != donations
deleted 11y ago
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joeyspn 11y ago

The logo they've picked is way toooo similar to Ludei's logo (HTML5 Games firm)... http://is.gd/lUCdMN http://is.gd/lUCdMN Rip-off?

cinbun8 11y ago

Youtube's goal would be to get people over to their gaming product instead of heading over to twitch. Plans for monetization come later. That should not be a concern considering twitch does not stream properly for many users. My friends on Steam share the same opinion (At least the ones in Asia). Streaming any game in real time and getting enough folks to watch it is still a problem that needs a solution with more polish. Twitch does not keep up and `Steam streaming` does not work half the time. I'd stream games on gaming.youtube.com if they did a better job at it and have a product focused around that. I can foresee a future where youtube can get those eyeballs on `gaming.youtube.com` instead of twitch.tv. Youtube is already popular for gaming reviews. Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazon.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazo...

chrischen 11y ago
A huge problem is bandwidth, especially if you need to play a game like an online first person shooter which needs every bit of bandwidth it can get.
- thezilch 11y ago
  It's unlikely an FPS needs high bandwidth -- typically less than the lowest-quality, 2005-age YouTube-video. Even with a high-tick game, you're looking at topping out at around 35KB. Yes there are going to be gamers in countries with less-developed internet, but I'd wager many streamers are pulling a minimum of 1MB+ and more likely 5-10MB+ egress.
  - minot 11y ago
    I think I have a decent connection and I only have 60 mb down and 30 mb up. it is good enough to stream 1080p 60fps to YouTube. YouTube promises two (well one actually) change that I welcome. It will allow one URL which I presume will go to the live broadcast and it promises that you won't have to create an event every time you start broadcasting. With these two changes, I am ready to switch to YouTube at any time.

craked5 11y ago

The problem i see is that Twitch already has a very strong culture in the gaming community. You see Twitch emotes being used everywhere on the internet and i started seeing people on my campus use it on everyday language. I know its silly, but the chat and all the "underground" culture around it is a major player in Twitch's success.

dogma1138 11y ago
Kappa!

ejcx 11y ago

One thing that would be neat is if google rolled out their own streaming software. I've streamed a little on twitch for fun (mostly programming and some gaming) and I found all of it pretty bad. Another neat thing is how much Replay value people's streams could get instantly being on youtube. I just checked twitch, and nobody really watches previously recorded streams. The most watched recorded videos this month in Gaming Talk Shows was only a little over 1000, while League of Legends most was in the 400s. Maybe youtube can really increase and monetize that for streamers. I would also be super interested in streaming other things too, which is just now starting to get popular on twitch. I would love to be able to stream me programming and interact with other computer folk that way. I've done it on twitch but didn't stick with it long enough to really give it a chance.

asillystory 11y ago
Streamers already use YouTube by editing their VODS into more digestible pieces rather than have one long X hour recorded stream.
legohead 11y ago
I was previous streams all the time, since I'm usually available when my favorite streamer is. It's also kind of convenient because you can skip around to the good parts. The one thing I really hate missing is the chat though. I wish they'd save chat history and show it alongside saved streams.
- s3bast0m 11y ago
  try this extension ReChat for Twitch™ https://www.rechat.org/ https://www.rechat.org/

ken47 11y ago

Twitch has already won over most of the potential audience for computer game streaming. Computer gamers tend to be a loyal bunch, and they know that Twitch is a site by and for gamers. If I had to guess, YouTube Gaming will have trouble making headway.

batiudrami 11y ago
The problem is Twitch infrastrucutre is not good enough to stream properly in many countries. A 1080p/60fps stream has only about a 6Mbit bitrate but in Australia will not work, even on a connection ten times as fast. Plus, without a special agreeement that only top streamers have, Twitch takes 50% of subscription money - I'm sure Google can afford smaller margins to lure streamers over. The problem they will face is not that gamers are loyal so much as for many people "live video game broadcast" is Twitch, so people are unlikely to notice live streams if they're elsewhere. This is solvable though - most streamers upload their VODs to YouTube anyway so they can easily notify users when a streamer is live.
- ken47 11y ago
  1) I'm sure with Amazon's resources behind them, Twitch will get their infrastructure up to snuff in more remote regions of the world. 2) Amazon could surely afford to compete with Google on sub share % if need be. Furthermore, it's not just a matter of offering a higher sub share. It's (sub share) * (# of subs). Twitch has a very good head start on the latter.
- jebblue 11y ago
  I'd guess Google should buy Twitch then but I'm just a coder not a business person.
  - Bhullnatik 11y ago
    It's almost sure that they tried, but the deal didn't go through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazon.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv#Acquisition_by_Amazo...

frik 11y ago

So will the auto tag and transfer old videos with gaming content to the new site? Will uploading gameplay content on regular YT be prohibited than? I would prefer if YT stay one entity and Google should just improve their "Search" on Youtube! It's weird that the search on Google in the video tab is a lot better than the search on Youtube directly. Youtube search functionality hasn't been improved since 2005 or so.

revanx_ 11y ago

Am I the only one that dislikes twitch because you need adobe flash player to do anything and is on generally a javascript bloated website?

Lynbarry 11y ago
Have you tried using livestreamer? You can just ignore the bloated website and watch streams in vlc with it. It also allows me to have my 30 tabs open and watch a stream on the second monitor without troubling firefox.
- revanx_ 11y ago
  Had no idea this exists, thanks!
pestaa 11y ago
When watching streams, put /popout at the end of the URL. It'll strip away the navigation and chat (basically everything but the video player.)
- revanx_ 11y ago
  The player itself requires Adobe flash to run and I haven't had that installed since youtube started experimenting with HTML5.

spdy 11y ago

Its all about the money they are willing to invest. If streamers with a viewership of 2-3k people on twitch can maintain/increase their income they will probably inclined to leave twitch. And on the other side you need culture to make it work. Aliases instead of real names / emotes etc. It will be a success the viewer base of yt in every demographic is to big but maybe not in the ballpark google wants it. Twitch will survive this and has to innovate which they dont really do atm.

downandout 11y ago

I don't doubt that this will gain at least some traction. You can never count Google out. But it is somewhat disappointing to see Google, which used to pride itself on innovation, making dim copies of others' products long after the market has been invented and grown. I'll stick with Twitch.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
> But it is somewhat disappointing to see Google, which used to pride itself on innovation, making dim copies of others' products long after the market has been invented and grown. It is somewhat disappointing to see people constantly complain about the cross-pollination of ideas.
- downandout 11y ago
  Based on the post it doesn't appear that this is a quantum leap inspired by Twitch. It's a dim copy, an also-ran. The only reason it has any hope at all is because Google is behind it.

jotm 11y ago

First time I hear of Twitch, but I watch a lot of those play-through videos on Youtube (20 minutes of that crap saves me days of wasting money and time playing the actual game :-D)...

bookwormAT 11y ago

I don't understand why Google can not roll this out internationally from the start. Why only US and UK? The content is not subject to old copyright contracts, which is typically the argument not to launch something in Europe and its crazy copyright situation. And twitch is available everywhere. If Google wants this to become a success, shouldn't they roll this out to as many people as possible and hope for network effects?

codewithcheese 11y ago
Maybe because their algorithms to organize the videos by game and type have only been optimized for English US and UK submissions.
- Mithaldu 11y ago
  Unlikely. Many european gamers from various countries game exclusively in english, since that is the original language for almost all games. Heck, the most famous game streamer is a Swede and all of his content is in (horribly squeaky) english.
  - LMAlVvQjSGj 11y ago
    Only AAA titles are translated into anything but English, and even those are just translated into a handful of languages. I know people from all over Europe, they all expect gaming content to be English. I'm Norwegian, but I run all my software in English. Linux distributions are the only ones having trouble with my 'strage' locale and language setup, but that's fully due to incompetent devs.
- bookwormAT 11y ago
  this would explain why there are only submissions in english. But not why those submissions are blocked in other countries.
rjaco31 11y ago
How is the copyright situation in Europe crazier than in the US? (genuine question)

tdkl 11y ago

Do we still need G+ to comment on YouTube Gaming ?

scotty79 11y ago

Imagine how would it all play out if game producers enforced their copyright as strictly as Hollywood or Music industry does. Namely no game footage allowed unless you pay as as much as we want because it's derived work. I doubt there'd be Twitch or YouTube Gaming.

IsTom 11y ago

Will make you use your real name? If so I don't see this going very far.

seivan 11y ago

I hope they make official streaming clients to make the process much easier. I had issues with streaming Mac OS with both sound as well as microphone input. Would also like to see a #GameDev channel. Was pretty cool to see Unreal show their stuff over Twitch.

DigitalSea 11y ago

It took long enough for Google to cater to gamers. After Twitch was acquired for a large sum of money, it was only a matter of time before Google decided to go after gamers. Most gamers have Youtube presences anyway, if Google can take all of the great features and things gamers like about Twitch and then add some additional features on-top, it'll be a success for them no doubt. Curious why they're launching in the US and UK first though. Couldn't find anything that explained why the delayed release, surely it's not because of copyright reasons.

tehbeard 11y ago
The major hurdle is goning be cultural rather than tech or features. Youtube comments vs. Twitch audience

mangeletti 11y ago

I'm glad to see competition in the space, but I have to admit that I read this article as, "We at Google noticed that Twitch was gaining quite a bit of traction, so we decided to use our behemoth size to see if we could successfully copy them.". I think Google might be starting to get scared. There are many threats to their search and web advertising hegemony, including Apple's announcement to include an ad blocker in iOS9. Google is quickly realizing that their long term survival might be in YouTube.