YouTube Gaming Gets Mobile Game Streaming, New Subscription

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YouTube Gaming on Thursday ramped up its challenge to Amazon-owned Twitch by adding streamed play of mobile games and a new subscription option.

The new application lets people stream from Android-powered gadgets, tapping into cameras to display players’ faces with gameplay in small frames on screens.

“Games are played while waiting for the bus, riding the subway, or lounging on the couch – but what about life streaming your mobile gameplay?” Yogameplayduct manager Barbara Macdonald wrote in a blog post.

gaming

“Users can now record and live stream mobile gameplay on-thgameplayectly from Android devices using Mobile Capture on YouTube Gaming.”

It remains to be seen how many people are interested in watching casual games that dominate space on smartphones and tablets.

According to the Google-owned service, the time spent watching game-related videos and live streams of play on YouTube totals more than 144 billion minutes each month.

YouTube Gaming also improved ways to find and watch videos that might interest or save snippets for later viewing.

Subscriptions

The California-based Internet service said it is testing a feature that lets people “sponsor” YouTube Gaming broadcasters they like through monthly subscriptions of $4 each.

Sponsors are offered benefits such as access to special chat sessions and “badges” that identify them as sponsors in online forums.

Twitch already lets fans subscribe to content creators.

Updated YouTube Gaming applications for Apple and Android-powered mobile devices were released Thursday in Britain and the United States.

At the end of August, the rollout of YouTube Gaming marked the public debut of an online venue where video game lovers can find commentary, live play, on-demand snippets, and more.

  • An English-language website at gaming.youtube.com was rolled out in countries where YouTube is available.
  • The online arena for video game channels incorporates the search smarts of Google, which owns YouTube, to surface fresh or must-see content.
  • Last year, US online retail giant Amazon snatched up Twitch and its huge audience for live-streamed gaming.
  • The acquisition was one of the largest in Amazon’s history – $970 million (roughly Rs. 6,301 crores) in cash for the three-year-old Internet company.
  • Twitch Interactive streams games being played for non-playing viewers to watch and hosts gaming events.

The clause does not block uploads of pre-recorded footage to YouTube or seem to endanger non-video game content. Nonetheless, how stringent Twitch plans to be with ensuring partners honor the agreement remains to be seen. The company has been vague about the situation, leading some to believe that streaming on YouTube is fine as long as it is not done on Twitch simultaneously. No cease-and-desist notices have been issued or reported by Twitch’s partners for streaming on YouTube.

While YouTube Gaming gives content creators and end-users some much-needed choice, it also puts pressure on Twitch to protect its territory as the de facto choice for those looking to share their game sessions with the world, and an exclusivity clause seems to be a step in that direction. With YouTube Gaming looking to roll out Android and iOS apps gradually, we won’t be surprised if this is the first of many clashes between these video giants.

It allows viewers to chat with the players and others, lending it some qualities of social networking websites and selling advertising to generate income.

The takeover came with a boom in online viewing of real-time video games or computer gameplay as “gameplay attracts growing crowds as spectator events.