it would appear that Google’s sights are firmly set on streaming with rumors going around they are in final discussions to buy out the popular Twitch.TV streaming platform for a rather cool $1 billion US dollars. Originally there’d been a rumour from Variety citing “sources familiar with the pact” the deal had been done and dusted and was simply requiring announcement.
This doesn’t seem to be the case, as now an ‘update’ (unofficial of course) has come to light from the Verga which points to Google and Twitch on being in the midst of the final set of terms to the agreement. So far one of the sticking points seems to be Twitch’s own independence and branding after the deal is finalized.
But wait, that’s not all folks! There was also a claim Microsoft had approached Twitch (with a very similar deal) but Twitch opted to go with Google because they felt they were in a better position to help them expand. Although Microsoft’s infrastructure for Windows Azure (which is a cloud based web service) is certainly up to the task, Google’s YouTube is a natural extension of Twitch.
People on forums and the general consensus appear omewhat nervous of the deal, particularly regular streamers and stream viewers for games due to Google’s content ID enforcement on videos recently via Youtube. It would be interesting how this would be enforced on Twitch, or even if it would. Others are less than chipper on the prospect of Google+ being integrated into Twitch. Of course all of this is purely speculation. Faster and higher quality streams would be nice – having a fast internet connection means nothing to Twitch on busy days. Sometimes forcing viewers to opt for 240p – hardly perfect for showing off the latest games.