Google will launch the YouTube Gaming platform on Wednesday – a new portal dedicated to videos focused on gaming.
First announced in June, YouTube Gaming will arrive as a website (gaming.youtube.com) and a free app for iOS and Android from tomorrow.
The service, described as a “YouTube built for gamers,” will go up against the billion dollar Amazon-owned Twitch and will feature dedicated pages for a whopping 25,000 games.
Within those pages there’ll be live streams from some of YouTube’s biggest names, game walkthroughs as well as the usual array of content from video game publishers.
See also: 5 Reasons Amazon bought Twitch
Search will also be optimised for video games so, as Gamespot points out, a search for “Call” will bring up Call of Duty rather than Call Me Maybe.
Games videos are becoming bigger business with each passing day, through platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
YouTube’s most popular content creator is the Felix Kjelberg, aka PewDiePie, who has amassed close to 39 million subscribers.
In 2014 alone, the Swede reportedly made $7.4m from (around £4.7m) from his gaming videos, which have racked up more than 9 billion views.
Can YouTube’s new venture reel in Twitch’s lead? Share your thoughts below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
