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Google Announces YouTube Gaming

Posted by Soulskill on from the don't-change-horses dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Today Google announced a major new rival to Twitch.tv: YouTube Gaming. In addition to providing structure for the gaming content YouTube already serves (like walkthroughs, reviews, "Let's Plays," speed runs, etc), it'll also be a livestreaming hub for those who like broadcasting their games or watching other people play. Each video game will have its own dedicated page, and users will be able to add games to their "collection" to see other users's videos relating to those games. YouTube Gaming will have its own dedicated app, as well as being a part of the YouTube website. Google is also touting a recommendation engine that will help gamers find more content to watch.

50 comments

  1. Didn't Google try to buy Twitch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So is that their plan B, turning YouTube into Twitch?

    1. Re:Didn't Google try to buy Twitch by diamondmagic · · Score: 1

      They're owned by Amazon now.

      And before they were known as Twitch.tv, they were known as Justin.tv.

      --
      Wonder what the public key field is for?
    2. Re:Didn't Google try to buy Twitch by bhagwad · · Score: 1

      It's brilliant. I hate twitch - the bandwidth is terrible, I can't choose the resolution, the interface is slow. Youtube is smooth and works seamlessly.

  2. Is Content ID / takedown still a thing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because if so then it's useless.

  3. copyright = nope by locopuyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Streamers play music while they game, and even gameplay videos on youtube get flagged for copyright violations just for having the in-game music playing.

    Streamers aren't going to move to a system they can't make money on. This will fail and end up like Google+.

    --
    The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
    1. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Every streamer I've watched has said the're not going to touch google streaming with a 10 foot pole.

      Every single one of them has said that the automated copyright control system triggers spuriously and cuts off your stream in a manner that pretty much kills your viewership. (And can cite personal experience, or can point to contemporaries that have had the same problem)

      No viewers = no money = no streamers

      Google's copyright system is asymmetric in that it can be triggered gamed by trolls or even people that will outright steal your content. Or it can be used to silence you when you say something critical about a companies works or practices. (Looking right fucking at you Sega.)

    2. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      How is that any different than Twitch? It's been my experience, with a significant time on the Twitch and UStream platforms, that Twitch's content matching is some of the most awful and draconic of the matching algorithms. They don't block out live ads, but for a 30 minute chunk after "last detection" (so first detection to last detection to +30 minutes), you receive NO advertising or clickcount revenue, and can't export "highlights" with ANY sound.

      Oh, and most of my livestreams don't have extra music playing over it, just the game's natural sound and music. Nearly every week I have 2-3 claims on my streams, because the matching algorithm... MATCHED THE GAME MUSIC. And in about 50% of cases, it's ignored by their "appeals" department. In my case, it's not a LOT of revenue lost, but if I was making serious bank, it'd be a serious problem.

      Stop thinking Twitch is some end-all be-all. The competition posed by YouTube (where most Twitch streamers dump their highlights, actually) will only improve the situation.

      (You'll notice I didn't say much about UStream, and that's because UStream is terrible unless you're broadcasting homemade liveporn. No, really.)

    3. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Came here to say this. Sucks to watch a let's play and find they have to mute the game to get it past the censors at Youtube. Some are extra nasty (Nintendo) and will still find ways to boot the video.

      Most people left youtube for twitch for exactly that reason.

    4. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      VODs on Twitch are muted for parts where copyrighted music is detected. This even includes ingame-music on GTA. It's not different.

    5. Re: copyright = nope by Threni · · Score: 1

      Isn't Google+ more popular than Twitter?

    6. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well at least Twitch doesn't take down your stream while you're STILL streaming and then take away your rights to stream and make money entirely by disabling monetization on your entire account... Which is what google does with their current livestream feature on youtube. I will take the 30 minutes of cut audio over losing the whole thing just because some music label is throwing a fit.

    7. Re: copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wait, what? People pay money to watch other people play video games? Jesus fucking Christ. That takes passivity to a whole new level of suck.

    8. Re: copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People have been paying money to watch other people play games for quite some time now. They called it sports.

    9. Re: copyright = nope by dissy · · Score: 2

      Wait, what? People pay money to watch other people play video games?

      Yes, for the past 8000 years or so. Where the fuck have you been?

    10. Re: copyright = nope by binarylarry · · Score: 1

      Quit being an asshole, you're going to hurt his feelings.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    11. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      VODs on Twitch are muted for parts where copyrighted music is detected. This even includes ingame-music on GTA. It's not different.

      It's quite different.

      I've had youtube disable monitazation on a VLOG I made with no music - no sound what so ever other than my voice - showing a flag at the second before I said the words "I wish it would come back to me" as matching "Super Mario World 3 Level" by Nintendo.
      Submitting a refute through to Nintendo resulted in Nintendo reapplying the flag against me as correct, and submitting an appeal to youtube went ignored.

      After nearly six months of trying to fight it I finally took the VLOG (me talking about programming no less, creating Skyrim mods) out of spite just so Nintendo didn't make even a penny off that theft from me.

      Twitch has never automatically detected a fice second clip of my voice as copyrighted music owned by Nintendo.

      Night and day difference there to me.

      So if your claim is youtube isn't horribly broken in content matching, you are provably incorrect.

      If your claim is that twitch is just as bad... well then OK I can't really give much argument, but for me personally I am at least lucky to have never experienced it myself.

    12. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The solution to the game-publisher-copyright-ass-kissing Twitch isn't a game-publisher-copyright-ass-kissing Youtube.

    13. Re: copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, what? People pay money to watch other people play video games? Jesus fucking Christ. That takes passivity to a whole new level of suck.

      Oh, get off your fucking high horse.

      People pay other people to be entertained, and some commentators that broadcast their video game playing are very entertaining to their audience. It is somewhat similar to late-night comedy shows, except the commentators are "interviewing" a video game instead of a celebrity.

      It may not be your cup of tea, but this medium of entertainment should not seem foreign or strange to the Slashdot community, nor should it be derided. If anything, it is a very nerdy form of entertainment.

    14. Re: copyright = nope by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Well, there are only 2 kinds of people:

      Those that do it, and those that complain about everyone else doing it.

    15. Re:copyright = nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup.

      I played a VERY old game that has a movie tie-in that everyone knows in 1989, on a MT-32, got content ID for some crap cover of the same track produced in 2012.

  4. Silly Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Didn't you hear the news? You're almost a year too late, gamers are dead!

  5. Twitch is so heavily used...good luck. by Last_Available_Usern · · Score: 1

    Pretty much everyone uses Twitch. Unless Google can get support for Twitch removed from a few key games/systems I don't see people switching in large numbers. Would be kind of like dethroning Paypal at this point.

    1. Re:Twitch is so heavily used...good luck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, if someone could provide a system similar to Paypal without the seemingly arbitrary account freezings and political moves, I'd move to it in a heartbeat.

    2. Re:Twitch is so heavily used...good luck. by Last_Available_Usern · · Score: 1

      Yea, but I bet you'd still have (and rely) on Paypal. From a purchasing standpoint you need the stores and sites to add support for the new payment service. And from the sellers side you have to rely on customers to create accounts and provide financial information to the new payment system, so you can bet you'd be throwing away business if you removed Paypal.

    3. Re:Twitch is so heavily used...good luck. by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Pretty much everyone uses Twitch. Unless Google can get support for Twitch removed from a few key games/systems I don't see people switching in large numbers. Would be kind of like dethroning Paypal at this point.

      That assumes you don't have any room for improvement.

      I know I never watch twitch or other game streaming sites. Why? They're annoying as hell to use - every 30 seconds you get blasted with a 30 second ad at full volume, so you lose 30 seconds of video, etc.

      Sure you can install adblockers and such, but it's an added pain. If Google figures out a way to do it without interrupting viewing of the stream, I'd gladly use their service.

      Paypal can be dethroned, if you realize what Paypal's business actually is. Which is allowing people to pay one another, especially using credit cards, without a merchant account. So Joe Random with a paypal account can take erratic one-off payments from random people over the Internet. It's irregular, and maybe you do one a year or something, or one a month. Thing is, you can't open a merchant account with business like that - it'll cost you more money (minimum transaction volume fees, etc), and you need an account if you want to take credit cards (especially in e-commerce, where any friction in payment will result in a steep loss in sales). No one's even attempted to try to beat Paypal at this game, which is why everyone is forced to use them.

      That's all you need to do - make it a less frustrating experience and people are likely to switch over.

    4. Re:Twitch is so heavily used...good luck. by bluec · · Score: 1

      Not true. Lots have tried to beat PayPal at that game, including Google with Google Checkout. They failed miserably because despite Google's efforts to encourage merchants to accept it, merchants didn't bother, and adoption rates were tiny. PayPal succeeded on the back of eBay and has since matured into a very useful wider service.

    5. Re:Twitch is so heavily used...good luck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are also the issues of streaming delays and limited archiving (both in terms of size and bandwidth) on Twitch... It's slowly improving, but the purchase by Amazon didn't have the expected dramatic improvement effect... Both issues could easily sway a lot of streamers and viewers, particularly since most streamers also have a YouTube channel already, which is often their main source of subscribers...

    6. Re:Twitch is so heavily used...good luck. by bhagwad · · Score: 1

      Well, there are no network effects that I'm aware of so I guess it shouldn't be a problem. A better product will be used cause there are no switching costs. Unlike say switching from Facebook to something else even if the alternative is better. In the latter scenario, a better product will not automatically get social media users cause the value of a social network increases with the number of existing users alone.

      I don't see the same effect for video streaming services.

  6. Google boggles the mind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All I want to know is when is Google going to send someone around to collect my garbage.

    1. Re:Google boggles the mind by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Do you really want someone going through your garbage to complete your profile?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. facebook:google+::twitch.tv:youtube gaming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Title says it all. No one is going to use this, because it doesn't sound attractive at all and does not improve upon what an already hugely popular service already offers.

  8. And shots have already been fired... by Aelanna · · Score: 1
    https://twitter.com/Twitch/sta...

    I'm hearing rumblings that Youtube Gaming already has some concerning rules too, like automatic strikes for playing copyrighted music (even accidentally) over a stream. I have this feeling it's going to be an uphill battle...

  9. No thanks.. copyright... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On youtube right now, if you just so happen to stream copyrighted content, even by mistake, the entire stream is taken down and you get a flag on your account, preventing you from doing anything anymore... And considering there's a lot of games with copyrighted music, most of them will be taken down.

    1. Re:No thanks.. copyright... by gnupun · · Score: 1

      To prevent the stream being taken down, you shouldn't use copyrighted content, or license the copyrighted content. If stream creators are being paid for their "work," why shouldn't the music copyright holders get paid as well?

  10. Collections by Ark42 · · Score: 1

    So this is why they removed the super-useful feature that used to let you group your subscriptions into named groups until a few weeks ago? Because it was called "collections" and they wanted to repurpose the name for some useless video game thing nobody is going to use?

    --
    Morphing Software
    1. Re:Collections by dissy · · Score: 1

      So THATs why my playlist menu recently exploded and went random-order!

      Yea I'm not sure how well this will work out for Youtube in the end.

      Now personally, when I watch a let's player I'm generally watching not for the game but am watching that particular person do their thing. So I'll probably be sticking with the user subscription method instead.
      I'd be less interested in a "Minecraft" channel and have to sort through all the squeeky voiced 8 year olds, and am more interested in for example "AngryJoe" review a game (any game) - or anything else to be honest - because it is Angry Joe.

      Ironically there is only one streamer I watch to check out new games while also enjoying cometary, and though he hosts some content on youtube I typically watch for new videos on his own website, as I wouldn't want to miss anything just because it was posted to blip or twitch or hosted locally.

      But I'd be lying if I said I never went to the main youtube page to search for a specific new game someone mentioned to see if it may be something I'd like to buy.
      In those cases I usually scroll the first page of results looking for a name I recognize, only clicking random videos if no one I know has one.

      This feature may help while doing those kinds of searches... maybe, if new games are added fast enough. Certainly on the rare case when I "miss" a good game at release and just don't hear about it for some time after, but that doesn't feel like too frequent of a case for me.

      But knowing how gaming communities are, I have no doubt this new reference method will get used enough to be worth them adding it.

      Now having it rival twitch? I have serious doubts there. Most people I know that use twitch do so not because youtube lacks similar features, but because of youtube policies and other stupidity in their eyes, none of which necessarily will change here (and which couldn't be changed this very second without this new feature as well)
      There is no way in hell those users will be changing back.

  11. PayPal vs Network effect by DrYak · · Score: 2

    I'd move to it in a heartbeat.

    You would, but not necessarily all the shops you visit would too.
    Welcome to the network effect !

    PayPal is designed in such a way that both ends of the transaction (both the merchant and the client) must use PayPal as a payment processor.
    Even if you decide on your own to switch, that won't have any impact on the merchant. If they don't switch, you'll be forced to keep PayPal to be able to buy from them.

    Contrast the situation with SEPA payment in Europe:
    You and the merchant are completely independent and free too choose a bank.
    You can have your account at any bank of your liking.
    The marchant can use any bank that pleases them.
    As long as both banks follow the SEPA standard, you can do payment and buy your goods (with a couple of days up to one week delay).

    Bitcoin (the protocol) was design partly to address the same problem:
    you and a merchant can choose any payment processor or other source of bitcoin (the units) to do a transaction.£
    The merchant could be using any payment processor that they would like (bitpay, coinbase, etc.)
    You could choose instead to go for an exchange (BTC-e) or obtain your BTC by meeting someone face-to-face (localbitcoin) or even actually store them in a wallet (If you feel like gambling on the completely crazy unstable exchange rate).
    As long as both ends of the transaction follow the bitcoin protocol, you're both free to pick any solution you like. You can do payment and buy your goods (with a couple of minute delay).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  12. It's going to be funnt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    revisiting this site in 6 months when YouTube Gaming destroys Twitch.

    1. Re:It's going to be funnt by tepples · · Score: 1

      Or when the major video game publishers' legal departments have filed so many copyright claims that both services lose a substantional portion of their user base.

  13. 5 seconds of..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the Simpsons Game or any Guitar Herock Band and there'd be DMCAs out the door immediately.

  14. but does the tv app have a search function? by sims+2 · · Score: 1

    does the tv app have a search function? i know twitch still doesn't

    --
    Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  15. Google was seeking out contact Twitch user info by lemur3 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not that long ago Google was posting tasks on the Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdsource job platform that asked people to visit a Twitch user account page which was provided to the worker.

    They wanted to know if that twitch user had a link to a YouTube page.... they wanted to know if there was an email address..... they wanted to know if the user had had some sort monetization link on youtube.. and if there were email/twitter contacts.

    I wonder if this has anything to do with that.

    were they just judging how much overlap there is between the communities?

    were they seeking out 'popular' people to contact them?

  16. We all remember Horror the Cat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remove Horror
    Remove Horror

  17. Split The Userbase?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. Google is being run by fucking idiots nowadays. Pretentious, hipster posers with no clue, riding on the wave of cheap credit. You don't split the userbase. This is basic shit. BASIC shit.

    What do young people watch on Youtube nowadays? Fucking Everything! Gaming, Music, TV shows, Funny e-bin may-may videos, Pewdiepie, cat videos, popular science vids, fan remixes, movie trailers, etc, etc, etc, etc. They watch all this under one site. Youtube.com. You split shit off into gaming.youtube.com and music.youtube.com, and tv.youtube.com and you will split the userbase and reduce the appeal of the site.

    Basic fucking shit. But here's the number one web company making a basic fucking mistake. Jesus fucking christ. This mobile "revolution", or more like "devolution", has produced an entire generation of completely retarded web designers and site administrators who have forgotten the basics of how people browse. Hint: No-one is going to spend all day in an App or a website that is basically an App, no matter how much you destroy the user interface.

    I've said it before and here it is again. Within a decade, perhaps within the next 5 years, some bright young web designers will "discover" new methods of making websites that will turn out to be almost identical to the usable, intuitive, and inviting websites we had in 2008. I'm talking side navigation panes, site maps, links with actual words on them, legible text and fonts, content borders, actual fucking dense, readable, clear content instead of a 2+MB page that take 5 seconds to fade in a single login screen. In short people will discover how to make a motherfucking website again.

    Hipsters are the cancer of tech. They are the creationists to our science. They must be purged before all is lost.

    1. Re:Split The Userbase?! by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

      I've said it before and here it is again. Within a decade, perhaps within the next 5 years, some bright young web designers will "discover" new methods of making websites that will turn out to be almost identical to the usable, intuitive, and inviting websites we had in 2008. I'm talking side navigation panes, site maps, links with actual words on them, legible text and fonts, content borders, actual fucking dense, readable, clear content instead of a 2+MB page that take 5 seconds to fade in a single login screen. In short people will discover how to make a motherfucking website again.

      I'll be glad when that happens. Webpages are getting slow and slower with more JavaScript crap that doesn't gain anything (fine if it's an interactive Office App, but just a blog post?) It's causing me to have to retire computers simply because surfing the web is too slow. The requirements of a web page are normally pretty simple: Show text, show pictures, show links, and in select cases show videos.

  18. I see this being used by the smaller streamers by subanark · · Score: 1

    The big streams already have a fan base. They know where to go, they are unlikely to risk losing a lot of viewers by moving.

    On the other hand, the streamers who have a small viewership, whose list is mostly made up of new users, can defiantly benefit from the influx of having youtube suggestions that look just like normal videos that people will click. It will be a great way to establish a new user base.

    Yes, there are stricter rules on what you can and can't do. You simply have to understand them and work with them.

  19. Agreed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like the other guy said.....basic shit. But people nowadays are too retarded to figure out such basic shit. And they still proudly call America the greatest and bestest country on Earth......LMFAO!

    The web is a fucking pile of shit. And I will entertain no counterargument to the contrary.

    On Firefox, with a few hundred tabs open (not even loaded...just in the fucking LIST), this shitpile quickly slows to a CRAWL. Takes 10-20 minutes just to OPEN the fucking thing. There is no telling how many weeks of my life, and my computer's life, have been wasted while the CPU spins at 100% and the God damned thing literally takes minutes just to highlight some text or accept keyboard/mouse commands. Oh, and the pricks have also somehow destroyed the cache functionality in the latest versions, wrecking my "offline browsing" usage scenario.

    Chrome is of course likewise completely shit, and a non-starter for any serious user with security concerns, if for no other reason than it's owned and operated by Google. If you like the NSA snooping through your shit at their leisure, feel free to use Chrome or other spyware.

    On a similar note, as your user name insightfully states, Linux is also garbage. A pile of shit. Linux Mint 17 is a fucking joke....and anyone who doesn't see that is a moron.

    It's ALL SHIT these days. Fucking everything. Trash heaps, everywhere, surrounding us. And people really think it's the best ever. Fuck humanity.

    I've become so God damned tired and disgusted of it all that I actually decided to completely reinvent computing over from scratch....with a new machine language architecture, new hardware, and new operating system, that kicks all the shit piles to the curb and keeps the fresh and useful ideas. This is the problem our team has now been working on for years. When the world sees what we've come up with, many bricks will assuredly be shat...especially by those who in some way profit off the current clusterfuck status quo.

    "Slashdot only allows a user with your karma to post 2 times per day (more or less, depending on moderation). You've already shared your thoughts with us that many times. Take a breather, and come back and see us in 24 hours or so. If you think this is unfair, please email posting@slashdot.org with your username "shiftless". Let us know how many comments you think you've posted in the last 24 hours. "

    Dear Dice: GO FUCK YOURSELVES WITH A SWORD. ASSHATS. YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.