YouTube is to launch a dedicated site and app for gaming in an attempt to take on Amazon-owned streaming service Twitch. Twitch allows gaming fans to watch and interact with live broadcasts of others playing games. Google is understood to have made a bid for Twitch last year, only to be beaten by Amazon’s $970m offer.
The search giant said the service would launch later this summer. YouTube Gaming product manager Alan Joyce said: "On YouTube, gaming has spawned entirely new genres of videos, from let’s plays, walkthroughs, and speedruns to cooking and music videos. Now, it’s our turn to return the favour with something built just for gamers."
The Let’s Play trend has proven particularly popular. Channels that demonstrate how to build environments in "sandbox" game Minecraft command views into the hundreds of millions. Advertising revenue is shared between the broadcaster and YouTube. Like Twitch, YouTube also allows for a "tip jar" function for viewers to send money to the broadcaster.