In its objective to provide more stream-friendly services, Google launched yesterday YouTube Gaming, which focuses on gaming content. YouTube Gaming functions as a launch pad for the general gaming library that is already on its video sharing website. This new platform curates playlists depending on a chosen game. For now, it offers a 12-hour stream of NBA 2K15, a speed run of Until Dawn, an Eve Online live show, and an official stream of Metal Gear Solid V.
YouTube's gaming head, Ryan Wyatt, shared with BBC that they wanted to create a one-stop shop for all gaming content. "At the moment there is a fragmented experience. People go to different places for live content, and YouTube for video on demand. We have amazing gamers that don't live stream yet. Now they have that opportunity," said Wyatt. "We created a live platform that will benefit all of YouTube. I can picture sports, beauty tutorials, live cooking streams," added Wyatt.
Likewise, gaming is not the only service the new app intends to provide. YouTube Gaming is in the process of trying a music service called Music Key. It has likewise launched a curated application for children in the United States.
Long before YouTube Gaming's launch, YouTube has already been eyeing to break its biggest competitor, Twitch, which has a near-monopoly of videogame streaming. Twitch is visited daily by hundreds of thousands of people who want to watch live streams of other people playing video games.
Those who visit Twitch regularly and have tried YouTube Gaming on its launch offers this comparison:
- YouTube Gaming is much like Twitch, but better.
- YouTube Gaming is cleaner, smoother, and more pleasant to use.
- YouTube Gaming is colored in a steam-reminiscent charcoal which makes games folk feel at home.
- YouTube Gaming is a lot easier on the eyes since it doesn't have to depend on the ads that are massive, constant and dominates the background.
- Unlike Twitch which crashes often, even on a fast connection, YouTube Gaming runs on a lighter HTML5 backend which makes streams fast and reliable.
- Broadcast will be terminated if "third-party content" such as music is detected by YouTube Gaming's content ID System, and this is not available on Twitch.
Amazon's Twitch, at this stage, is still synonymous to game streaming. But with YouTube Gaming's many resources even at its launching stage, it seems a heavy and serious competitor is now on for Twitch.
