Google Launches its Youtube Gaming App in India
BANGALORE: According to a recently published report, the Indian video gaming industry is set to surpass INR 4,000 Crore by 2017. A good percentage of the youth population who have progressively rising disposable incomes and a rise in PC, Console and Wireless usage, have accelerated the industry growth in the domain significantly. That seems to be the story behind Google launching its YouTube Gaming app—Google's next steps into the money-spinning “Indian” world of video game live streaming, on Android and iOS for the Indian market.
Youtube gaming was unveiled for U.K and U.S audiences last year, but Google has taken its time to forge an idea of the marketplace in the country before unveiling it here. It has been reported that around 61 percent of the online gaming community in India plays Dota 2, around 27 percent prefer Counter strike and 19 percent are engrossed by Team Fortress. Successful gaming events like the Indian Gaming Expo (IGX) who offered a massive INR 3 Lakhs in prize money, are testament to a growing active gaming community in the country. Also, attendances for these events have soared in the past couple of years proving that there is a market for watching live streams of games in the country, too.
YouTube Gaming is an app that keeps gamers connected to the games, the players, and the overall culture via live streams, videos, and an interactive community. Globally, gaming has long been poised as a spectator sport with almost 144 billion minutes of game videos watched every month on the world’s most popular video website. Currently six of the 10 most-viewed channels on YouTube in the native United States are gaming channels with more than half of the gaming views streamed via mobile devices. Over 25,000 games have their dedicated pages that stream their related videos on Youtube.
In order to live stream via the Youtube Gaming app, users don’t require installation of any additional hardware or software, but just tap the “Go Live” button within the app. Users can also choose to turn on their selfie cam and record their private commentary to go with the streaming.
“YouTube Gaming was launched in the U.S. and U.K. last August, and we’re excited to invite new players to join us,” said Ines Cha, Head of YouTube Gaming Content & Partnerships, Asia Pacific.
Users can also have access to Youtube Gaming on a desktop machine or laptop via gaming.youtube.com.
“YouTube Gaming is built to be all about gamers and games. We automatically pull in all gaming-related videos and live streams from YouTube to YouTube Gaming. From ‘Asteroids’ to ‘Zelda’, more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. User can also access channels from a huge selection of game publishers and YouTube creators,” Cha added.
Users have the ability to add a new game to their collection, thus enabling them to stay up-to-date with the latest videos and can get real-time notifications as soon as a live stream begins.
“Using recommendations based on the games and channels they love, users can now unearth new favorites.”
“On Android, we’ve also made it simpler to broadcast game play. Users can now record and live stream mobile game play on-the-go directly from Android devices via Mobile Capture.”
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