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Facebook Prepping Twitch Competitor For Game Streaming
Facebook has announced today that the social media platform is prepping a streaming program for gaming broadcasts as a competitor to Twitch and Youtube Gaming.
Detailed in a blog post, the Gaming Creators pilot program plans to leverage Facebook's existing technology with a lot of what its competitors already do. Of special note is that Facebook wants to use the Oculus as one of its streaming platforms, suggesting using VR for gaming streams.
In terms of monetization, Facebook is exploring options, but is committing to a viable path for people to give money to streamers. "To that end, many gaming creators monetize their videos directly from the support of their passionate fans, and we’re actively exploring ways for fans to back their favorite gaming creators via payments during select livestreams on Facebook.com," the bog post says. "Based on the results of our initial tests, we’ll expand our fan support monetization initiatives to more gaming creators, including participants in our initial pilot program."
Facebook plans to bring their first major showing of their gaming streaming program to PAX East in April.
Our Take
More streaming competitors is good in that it allows everyone to up their game in technology, but I feel like most big streamers will probably stick to Twitch for now. Who knows, though, one bad policy update could swing the pendulum the other way.
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