In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, Google is launching its big competitor to Twitch—YouTube Gaming. And, yes, it's going to basically recreate the Twitch experience on Google's sprawling platform, with a few added features.
YouTube Gaming will also exist as a separate entity from YouTube, at least in the sense that searches made on YouTube Gaming shouldn't pull in normal YouTube content. (As YouTube notes, "typing 'call' will show you 'Call of Duty' and not 'Call Me Maybe.'")
YouTube Gaming isn't just going to focus on live-streaming. The site will, as you might expect, host and display conventional gaming videos of all kinds. And all of this content will be built around individual pages for any game that basically exists.
"YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else. From 'Asteroids' to 'Zelda,' more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. You'll also find channels from a wide array of game publishers and YouTube creators," reads YouTube's blog post.
"Keeping up with these games and channels is now super easy, too. Add a game to your collection for quick access whenever you want to check up on the latest videos. Subscribe to a channel, and you'll get a notification as soon as they start a live stream. Uncover new favorites with recommendations based on the games and channels you love."
That's not to say that Google isn't trying to make YouTube Gaming a popular place for live-streaming as well, though. And it already has quite a hook in place given that Twitch streamers, for example, will often just export their broadcasts (or best-of highlights) to YouTube.
Twitch's archiving system is a bit more rigid than YouTube's: Regular broadcasters get a 14-day storage of the entire broadcast and unlimited storage of highlights, and this figure bumps up to 60 days for Twitch Turbo Subscribers and Partners. In other words, Twitch streamers aren't staying on Twitch exclusively. They're used to having YouTube as part of the overall experience, and Google is hoping that some additional streaming-themed features can help lure them away completely.
"Live streams bring the gaming community closer together, so we've put them front-and-center on the YouTube Gaming homepage. And in the coming weeks, we'll launch an improved live experience that makes it simpler to broadcast your gameplay to YouTube," YouTube said. "On top of existing features like high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR, and automatically converting your stream into a YouTube video, we're redesigning our system so that you no longer need to schedule a live event ahead of time. We're also creating single link you can share for all your streams."
According to Google, YouTube Gaming will launch in the U.S. and the U.K. this summer on mobile apps and the Web.