With YouTube Gaming’s summer launch on the near horizon, Twitch hasn’t shown any sign they are worried at all. Their website still is relatively unchanged with all the issues I noted before.
This kind of arrogant inaction reminds me of Microsoft’s ex-CEO (Steve Ballmer) reaction and response to Apple’s original announcement of the iPhone and subsequently missing the boat on the mobile revolution (and setting the entire company back by at least 5 years in that space).
And then his response to the iPad which even he himself said they were some form of “PC” which in the years following to date, have sold well over 230 million units (while general purpose PC’s continue to decline in year over year unit sales as more and more find devices like iPad’s fulfilling those exact general purpose needs).
My point is that Twitch is playing the role of Ballmer by totally missing what the average person out there is interested in. They have had more than enough heads up of what is coming and have chosen to sit on their laurels by continuing with the status quo due to their position.
While I don’t expect it, it would be totally humorous if YouTube/Google actually has a workable monetization system (ala Twitch’s subscription model) in place for streamers by the time they launch as well as having worked out the details for copyrighted game audio with the leading publishers so that both live streams and video on demand content aren’t summarily blocked.
The chat system will likely be an issue since they don’t plan on using an IRC based setup (which allows some level of automation via chat bots like Nightbot or Moobot). That is unless they have a chat API ready to go which will allow developers to create similar alternatives.
As I noted before, some personal Twitch contracts may strictly prohibit some of their bigger streamers from actually using YouTube Gaming (non-compete clause). But as I also noted before, Twitch doesn’t make it easy for newer streamers to gain an established foothold; YouTube Gaming will offer a viable alternative where others who consistently fly under the radar on Twitch, will be able to make a name for themselves on YTG.
YTG will end up creating its own unique communities (an argument many Twitch fans push as one of that sites main selling points). Twitch does not have a unique hold on what defines a community though. True, the biggest streamers there do have their own communities and if their personal contracts stipulate a non-compete clause, their communities aren’t going to go anywhere. But I’m not talking about those folks; I’m talking about the ones who are overshadowed and have been consistently passed over for being a partnered streamer. Add this to the sites broken search and terrible archived broadcast system, while having a competitor that basically excels at search and video; nah, Twitch doesn’t have anything to worry about (kappa aka /sarcasm).
