Steam Broadcasting Lets You Livestream Your Games

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Livestream your gaming sessions on Steam

If there's one thing gamers like to do, it's play games (duh). And if there's a second thing they like to do, it's play more game. But number three on the list would be to stream the action for friends and strangers to gawk at, which is something Twitch is very good at. Getting with the times, Valve this week announced a livestreaming service of its own called Stream Broadcasting.
It's currently in beta form and open to everyone on Steam who wants to participate -- you just have to opt in to the Steam Client beta through the Steam Settings panel (Settings > Account and change "Beta Participation" to "Steam Beta Update"). Once enabled, you can see how your friends are doing on the virtual battleground by clicking on "Watch Game" from their profile or from the Steam Client Friend's List. When you do, a window into their gameplay will open.
Is this the beginning of the end for Twitch? That's jumping the gun quite a bit. Though officially they're now competitors of sorts, they're not really on the same playing field, and certainly Twitch doesn't sound threatened at this early stage.
"While Steam’s broadcasting solution and the Twitch platform are very different things with vastly different feature sets, it’s really validating to see a company like Valve embrace streaming in this way," Matthew DiPietro, Twitch's vice president of marketing and communications, said in a statement. “Live video is the future of social connectivity for gamers and this is another proof point. We wish them the best of luck."
Valve warns that for the time being, concurrent viewing might be limited as it works on scaling things up to support a broader audience.
More information can be found here.
Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook


More...