YouTube Gaming has just won a massive victory in the streaming wars. In a statement, Activision Blizzard and Google announced that they had secured an agreement for the exclusive streaming rights to the Overwatch, Call of Duty and Hearthstone eSports Leagues.
Although Twitch has long dominated the streaming scene, new rivals like Facebook and Mixer have been trying to challenge the Amazon-backed titan and grow their own audiences. However, despite growing competition, Twitch has remained the go-to platform for watching live eSports events and gaming convention streams. It seems that this new exclusivity deal has left avid fans and habitual Twitch viewers unhappy.
In the press release, Google and Activision Blizzard described their contract as a "multi-year strategic relationship." Outside of the YouTube Gaming exclusivity deal, Activision Blizzard would also transfer their game hosting services to Google Cloud. The two companies promised that players would be able to enjoy "curated recommendations for in-game offers" and low latency without sacrificing game fidelity. While Activision Blizzard's Chief Information Officer Jacques Erasmus praised Google Cloud's infrastructure, Google officials like YouTube Gaming head Ryan Wyatt and Google Cloud's Gaming head Sunil Rayan also expressed their excitement to work with the game developer. The announcement concluded stating that this agreement would begin by streaming the Call of Duty league this week, and continue with the Overwatch League in February.
Although the two corporations seem enthusiastic about cooperating with each other, eSports enthusiasts are less receptive to the news. Several fans took to Twitter to express their discontent. One Twitter user said that they would "rather spend all of my money to go watch every single game live than watch [the Overwatch League] on YouTube Gaming," while another expressed confusion about what would happen to the previously existing All-Access passes to the leagues and another older deal with ESPN and ABC to broadcast the Overwatch League.
To some, this agreement between Google and Activision Blizzard might seem half-baked and sudden. However, when examining the two companies' previous interactions and the current state of the gaming and streaming industries, the deal suddenly makes more sense. As the statement said, Google has previously worked with Activision Blizzard on optimizing their mobile titles. It would only make sense to form a regular partnership if these previous mobile ventures were successful. Moreover, the deal seems to allow the two corporations to compete with the ubiquitous Amazon and Twitch. Even Activision Blizzard previously depended on Amazon's infrastructure for the Call of Duty franchise. The new partnership both eliminates Activision Blizzard's reliance on one major company's architecture and streaming platform and allows Google to gain another foothold in the fierce competition of platforms.
Although fans are right to be skeptical of whether the partnership between Activision Blizzard and Google will work out, hopefully, the resulting impact on gaming and streaming as a whole will be positive. Allowing the eSports leagues to be streamed on YouTube Gaming will hopefully open up a whole new audience for Activision Blizzard and YouTube. In the worst-case scenario, Twitch users will always host unauthorized streams for diehard enthusiasts to enjoy.
Source: Activision Blizzard/Google