As gaming continues to populate more and more of the space on YouTube, it’s become apparent that there might not be enough room for all that content while retaining the streamlined experience and ease of use that YouTube prides itself on.
Between the endless list of Let’s Plays, speed runs, trailers, livestreams, tech demos, glitch and bug demonstrations, walkthroughs, reviews, and all the little videos in between, gaming has become a huge portion of the content available.
In order to make navigating all those gaming-related videos less torturous, YouTube is trying a different approach. As reported by Michael McWhertor of Polygon, an event that took place today at the company studio in L.A., where YouTube’s global head of gaming partnerships, Ryan Wyatt, stated that YouTube Gaming has been “built from the ground up for gamers by gamers,” and that “no longer is gaming going to be lost in a sea of content.”
Besides the event in L.A., the official YouTube blog now features an in-depth detailing of the goals and intentions of the new Gaming addition.
The list of features of this new platform is seemingly endless, with a great deal of emphasis on livestreaming; likely an attempt to compete directly with Twitch. This list includes things like the ability for content creators to begin livestreaming immediately instead of having to set it up ahead of time. This feature was announced alongside the capability to immediately notify followers of your livestream with a quick notification.
YouTube Gaming also promises a streamlined search experience by setting up hubs for watchers to check out based on important and relevant details. For example, there will be dedicated hubs for specific games, game developers and publishers, and content creators themselves.
“And when you want something specific, you can search with confidence, knowing that typing ‘call’ will show you Call of Duty and not ‘Call Me Maybe,'” said YouTube Gaming product manager Alan Joyce of the service. This is all good news for content creators and consumers alike.
Youtube Gaming is planned to launch sometime this summer alongside a dedicated app that will function exactly as the site itself does.