Google Purchases Twitch for $1 Billion Dollars
For those of you unfamiliar, Twitch TV is a gaming stream platform that’s rapidly become an essential pillar of the eSports and online gaming community. Gamers love Twitch because it allows viewers to tap into gaming as a spectator sport, often it becomes more about the personality and persona of the gamer, rather than the game itself. It’s also become the go-to spot for most gaming events. Each major conference of E3 2014 was streamed live on Twitch, as well as a litany of eSport league events. The only real alternative to Twitch is YouTube, which in recent years has seen a massive rise in the amount of Let’s Plays, gaming footage and game coverage. In that regard, it’s unsurprising that Google would want to purchase Twitch in order to have a monopoly of online gaming platforms, with no real competition in sight.
Back in late May, several sources confirmed that Google had made an all-cash offer and that the deal could be confirmed at any point. Sources involved with the deal have now claim the price of sale is in the region of one billion dollars. Google’s YouTube division are said to be in charge of the sale, with the acquisition possibly meaning a change in the way YouTube handles its gaming content, both functionally and financially. When the sale was rumored in late May, many gaming personalities were skeptical of what this could mean for Twitch TV, given Google’s affinity for making unpopular decisions, such as the way it handled copyrighted game content, among other things.
As to whether this is good, or bad for anyone but YouTube, we’ll have to wait and see.