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Gamers didn’t need the recent acquisition of Twitch by Amazon to tell them that gameplay streaming was on the rise, but it sure didn’t hurt.
Let’s Play videoshave grown so much in just the past year that many can make their living simply by letting others watch them play games.
Thus far, Twitchhas had a solid hold on the gameplay streaming market, with others like YouTubetrying to keep pace. But that will soon change as a new challenger arrives in the form of digital distributor Steam .
Steam Broadcasting is the next venture for Valve‘s digital distribution goliath and it could be one of the service’s most marketing-focused feature yet. In essence, it’s Twitch streaming without the middleman.
How Stream Broadcasting works is fairly simple. A Steam user activates a stream, sets some privacy parameters, and then is off and running. In turn, Steam users can tune into any gamers’ stream, provided the stream is open. Right now, there are four privacy options: allow friends to watch, request to watch, invite to watch, or allow anyone to watch.
Steam Broadcasting also features a chat stream for gamers to interact with their viewers. With the feature, these broadcasters can do anything from show off a lesser-known game to provide helpful tips for getting through a difficult section – all directly from the Steamclient.
While Twitch should be concerned about such a powerful player entering the streaming market, they have thus far welcomed the competition from Valve. As Twitch VP of Marketing Matthew DiPietro explains, Stream Broadcasting helps validate the work Twitch has been doing for years.
“We are huge fans of Steam and work with Valve regularly on various events and product integrations. While Steam’s broadcasting solution and the Twitch platform are very different things with vastly different feature sets, it’s really validating to see a company like Valve embrace streaming in this way. Live video is the future of social connectivity for gamers and this is another proof point. We wish them the best of luck.”
However, although Twitch is playing nice for now, this could prove to be a hugely competitive move for Valve. Not only does Stream Broadcasting make PC gameplay streamingeven easier it helps increase visibility for the hundreds of thousands of games in their library. Imagine watching someone stream a game you’re interested in and then being able to purchase it right then and there.
The only key difference between Steam Broadcasting and Twitch (outside of the console streaming) right now is subscriptions. Twitch users can create a fan base and a revenue stream through their subscriptions whereas Steam Broadcasting has no such feature in place. That doesn’t mean it won’t in the future, though.
Right now Steam Broadcasting is only available to Steam Beta Client users, but it will seemingly roll out to all users in the future.
What do you think of Steam Broadcasting? Will Valve be able to replace Twitch?
Source: Valve
Follow Anthony on Twitter @ANTaormina