Well there’s been rumours about it happening since May and now it seems that it’s become official. Google have bought the popular gaming-streaming platform Twitch for an estimated $1 billion through their Youtube division.

The previous rumours were not confirmed in any way by either party in the past, although there had been some concerns that the acquisition might be stopped by the US Justice Department. This was down to the fact that Twitch represented Youtube’s only major competition for the streaming of big eSports events, so the purchase could be seen as anti-competition. Although not publicly announced the news was spread via VentureBeat through sources there.

There had previously been other concerns about Google’s purchase of Twitch from the site’s regular viewers and also people who use the Youtube site for their videos. The previous year has brought about a lot of unpopular changes to the video-streaming platform and a wave of content strikes against content creators, especially those who review video games. There have also been those who pointed out that the acquisition of Twitch could be seen as Youtube and Google attempting to support the gaming video community.

Do you see Google’s purchase of Twitch as a good thing or a bad thing? Or somewhere in between? Comment below and let us know!

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