YouTube Gaming to take on Twitch

YouTube has no end of gaming videos and Let’s Play channels, but now it’s taking on streaming services like Twitch with its brand-new YouTube Gaming site. 

Launching this summer in both the US and UK, YouTube Gaming will be the video service’s new home for all things games related. Each game will have its own page, showcasing the best videos and livestreams related to that title, and there will also be channels for individual game publishers and YouTube creators who want to broadcast their own gameplay videos to YouTube. Livestreams will also be available from the YouTube Gaming homepage. 

To keep up to date with your favourite games and channels, you can add a game to your collection for quick access. Meanwhile, subscribing to a game or channel will send you a notification each time there’s a new live stream. You’ll also get recommendations based on the games and channels associated with your account. 

YouTube hopes that grouping pages by game will help make searching for videos much easier. For instance, typing in “call” will automatically show videos related to “Call of Duty” rather than populating your search results with “Call Me Maybe” parodies.

YouTube Gaming will support existing features such as high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR and will automatically convert all livestream videos into a YouTube video. However, YouTube has said that it will also be introduced several new features, such as the ability to create single links you can share for all your various livestreams and eliminating the need to schedule live events ahead of time. 

YouTube will be demoing its new streaming service at E3 this week, but you can get a sneak peak of what YouTube Gaming will look like right now by heading over to YouTube’s E3 page. Here, you’ll find a big list of livestreams on the right hand side next to the main video windows, while below you can watch and vote for your favourite E3 trailers.