Youtube had said in the past year that they wanted to concentrate on promoting the gaming side of their big video network. A lot of us probably rolled their eyes at that because Youtube's record of looking after gamers' videos hasn't always been... great. Although some of that is down to copyright laws being a bit outdated, but that's something for an entirely different article.
However yesterday Youtube announced Youtube Gaming, a seemingly streaming-based platform with dedicated channels for specific games and a new, moderated chat system. Which if you've ever heard of Twitch will sound mighty familiar.
Youtube are hoping to gain a slice of the streaming pie with this, and it is nice to see a place just for gaming videos and streams so that viewers interested in them can find what they're looking for a bit easier. Subscribing to channels on the service will allow you to receive notifications when the channel is about to go live. And of course, Twitch's response to its announcement on Twitter was golden.
Youtube Gaming will launch this summer and will be available in both website and app forms (PC, iOS and Android).