The chances of a successful tech start-up not being bought out is practically nil, if not Google who would people of preferred to buy Twitch?
Of the tech giants Google seems to be to me the one that still has any vestiges of the people who were not there just for money but for humanity too. While profits have been much higher on Googles priorities lately, could you imagine if instead of google it was Comcast that was trying to buy Twitch? It's not ridiculous considering Comcast is beginning to understand that content production is mostly a money hole, it's all about content delivery. Which is why Comcast wants to own all of the cables, just imagine if they also owned the primary sites user generated content was hosted through?
People who remember the 'good ole days' will complain about changes but I imagine any new comers or people who only watched twitch occasionally wont even notice any significant changes.
Pretty torn on this, in a lot of ways I think YouTube is undoubtedly superior. Lagging and all the other problems Twitch suffers from shouldn't be a problem on YT, I also think it it might lead to a larger audience if they do any promotion on it. Since I'd argue the huge majority of people in the world have no idea esports even exists.
Having said that I agree with many of the points I've read on here, monopolies are rarely if ever a good thing. G+ integration is stupid and infuriating at times (Like constantly asking for my cell phone number and or real name, if I turned you down the first time do they really think I'm going to give it to them on the tenth?), and frankly YT has been getting worse and worse over the years, but because they are effectively a monopoly it's almost impossible to not use.
Pretty unlikely but I'm genuinely hoping Azubu does reasonably well if this deal does go through.
The idea that Twitch.tv might be soiled by the likes of Google+ makes me so very sad, but now the infrastructure to stream events live would be amazing. I'm torn.
On May 20 2014 01:49 GreenHorizons wrote: if not Google who would people of preferred to buy Twitch?
Preferably nobody.
If not that, then the company that already has a dominant presence in user generated gaming content would easily be the last on my list.
Hell, even if Comcast bought Twitch, they would still be competing against Youtube'services, and only competition can yield benefits to the users. It's not about the profile of the company, it's about how much of a specific market is already in their hands.
And no, there is no "humanity" in any of those corporations. Not Google, not Valve, nobody. It's more so that some of them maintain calculated public image to profit off of consumer good will, while others care less or see no direct benefit in that (it mostly depends on their consumer base). There's no good guys here.
On May 20 2014 01:49 GreenHorizons wrote: if not Google who would people of preferred to buy Twitch?
Preferably nobody.
If not that, then the company that already has a dominant presence in user generated gaming content would easily be the last on my list.
Hell, even if Comcast bought Twitch, they would still be competing against Youtube'services, and only competition can yield benefits to the users. It's not about the profile of the company, it's about how much of a specific market is already in their hands.
And no, there is no "humanity" in any of those corporations. Not Google, not Valve, nobody. It's more so that some of them maintain calculated public image to profit off of consumer good will, while others care less or see no direct benefit in that (it mostly depends on their consumer base). There's no good guys here.
Twitch was never up to snuff. Now they will be whether you guys like it or not. Monopoly money be coming. Deal with it.
O god another Google thing to ruin, will be shit, so I hope someone sets something better up. Id at least want some guarantees regarding payment for streamers and not messing about with the music rules.
i know a lot of people are down on this, but psyched to see what they do. It may be kind of nice to see what they do with all streaming and vods all in one place
On May 19 2014 23:28 obesechicken13 wrote:when really they're any other.
Yeah, right, any other. I just looked at the biggest companies, where google ranks 50+, and you'd have to compare them to banks, oil companies, Apple and Microsoft. Could you keep a straith face saying they're the same ? Google isn't "godsent", of course, but at least they haven't screwed us yet, even though they totally could.
Yes. I can. It's not like google can somehow hire more talent than Microsoft or Apple or their company philosophy "do no evil" makes everyone at the company into saints. They follow the same agile development principles as any other big company and have the same types of teams. In human terms they put their pants on one leg at a time.
Stop putting them on a pedestal.
Going that way, I could also tell you that they make money too, and that their compagny name uses letters and they have a logo. So they must be the same. Of course they are very close to Microsoft and Apple, although they tend to make better products than the first and are not as greedy as the second, but if you compare them to the other big companies I quoted and still stand on your ground, well, there is probably nothing I can do to make you think otherwise.
Edit : I do, though, totally admit that I'm biased. Maybe I put them on a pedestal, but how does that concern you ? Still, saying they're the same as any other compagny seems a bit of a stretch. As far as I know they harm no one making their money. Prove me wrong and I'll change my mind.
Like Microsoft and Apple, Google was one of the companies that gave private information to the NSA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program) That's the only example I can think of where Google behaved like any other large company in doing something that could be considered evil.
Whatever. Twitch was pretty much a monopoly already ever since Azubu closed down and the software is already pretty decent. Google just has to not ruin that. Can't be hard. If it sucks, hopefully the community doesn't get too divided between a suckish streaming site and a good one.
On May 19 2014 23:28 obesechicken13 wrote:when really they're any other.
Yeah, right, any other. I just looked at the biggest companies, where google ranks 50+, and you'd have to compare them to banks, oil companies, Apple and Microsoft. Could you keep a straith face saying they're the same ? Google isn't "godsent", of course, but at least they haven't screwed us yet, even though they totally could.
Yes. I can. It's not like google can somehow hire more talent than Microsoft or Apple or their company philosophy "do no evil" makes everyone at the company into saints. They follow the same agile development principles as any other big company and have the same types of teams. In human terms they put their pants on one leg at a time.
Stop putting them on a pedestal.
Going that way, I could also tell you that they make money too, and that their compagny name uses letters and they have a logo. So they must be the same. Of course they are very close to Microsoft and Apple, although they tend to make better products than the first and are not as greedy as the second, but if you compare them to the other big companies I quoted and still stand on your ground, well, there is probably nothing I can do to make you think otherwise.
Edit : I do, though, totally admit that I'm biased. Maybe I put them on a pedestal, but how does that concern you ? Still, saying they're the same as any other compagny seems a bit of a stretch. As far as I know they harm no one making their money. Prove me wrong and I'll change my mind.
Like Microsoft and Apple, Google was one of the companies that gave private information to the NSA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program) That's the only example I can think of where Google behaved like any other large company in doing something that could be considered evil.
Noted. Part of me still wants to argue (like, how do you even say no to the NSA ? Has there been any major compagny that said no to that ?) but that would be way off topic.
On May 19 2014 23:28 obesechicken13 wrote:when really they're any other.
Yeah, right, any other. I just looked at the biggest companies, where google ranks 50+, and you'd have to compare them to banks, oil companies, Apple and Microsoft. Could you keep a straith face saying they're the same ? Google isn't "godsent", of course, but at least they haven't screwed us yet, even though they totally could.
Yes. I can. It's not like google can somehow hire more talent than Microsoft or Apple or their company philosophy "do no evil" makes everyone at the company into saints. They follow the same agile development principles as any other big company and have the same types of teams. In human terms they put their pants on one leg at a time.
Stop putting them on a pedestal.
Going that way, I could also tell you that they make money too, and that their compagny name uses letters and they have a logo. So they must be the same. Of course they are very close to Microsoft and Apple, although they tend to make better products than the first and are not as greedy as the second, but if you compare them to the other big companies I quoted and still stand on your ground, well, there is probably nothing I can do to make you think otherwise.
Edit : I do, though, totally admit that I'm biased. Maybe I put them on a pedestal, but how does that concern you ? Still, saying they're the same as any other compagny seems a bit of a stretch. As far as I know they harm no one making their money. Prove me wrong and I'll change my mind.
Like Microsoft and Apple, Google was one of the companies that gave private information to the NSA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program) That's the only example I can think of where Google behaved like any other large company in doing something that could be considered evil.
Whatever. Twitch was pretty much a monopoly already ever since Azubu closed down and the software is already pretty decent. Google just has to not ruin that. Can't be hard. If it sucks, hopefully the community doesn't get too divided between a suckish streaming site and a good one.
Own3d shut down. Azubu is making a push, and I have a feeling that the GEM represented players/personalities are getting behind to give it some extra oomf. (Take a look at who's been streaming recently on Azubu from the SC2 side of things.)
Not sure if I'd think of Azubu as serious competition at this point, but it seems to have name recognition over someone like hitbox. And unless you're French, you're unlikely to look at DailyMotion. Still, Twitch is the reigning giant in the market niche, and I can see them being pretty attractive to someone looking to expand into that space.
If Google buys Twitch, hopefully they leave it independent but offer monetary and technical support - without me having to say "No!" to a prompt and be told "Okay, we'll ask you again later..."
On May 19 2014 23:28 obesechicken13 wrote:when really they're any other.
Yeah, right, any other. I just looked at the biggest companies, where google ranks 50+, and you'd have to compare them to banks, oil companies, Apple and Microsoft. Could you keep a straith face saying they're the same ? Google isn't "godsent", of course, but at least they haven't screwed us yet, even though they totally could.
Yes. I can. It's not like google can somehow hire more talent than Microsoft or Apple or their company philosophy "do no evil" makes everyone at the company into saints. They follow the same agile development principles as any other big company and have the same types of teams. In human terms they put their pants on one leg at a time.
Stop putting them on a pedestal.
Going that way, I could also tell you that they make money too, and that their compagny name uses letters and they have a logo. So they must be the same. Of course they are very close to Microsoft and Apple, although they tend to make better products than the first and are not as greedy as the second, but if you compare them to the other big companies I quoted and still stand on your ground, well, there is probably nothing I can do to make you think otherwise.
Edit : I do, though, totally admit that I'm biased. Maybe I put them on a pedestal, but how does that concern you ? Still, saying they're the same as any other compagny seems a bit of a stretch. As far as I know they harm no one making their money. Prove me wrong and I'll change my mind.
Like Microsoft and Apple, Google was one of the companies that gave private information to the NSA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program) That's the only example I can think of where Google behaved like any other large company in doing something that could be considered evil.
Whatever. Twitch was pretty much a monopoly already ever since Azubu closed down and the software is already pretty decent. Google just has to not ruin that. Can't be hard. If it sucks, hopefully the community doesn't get too divided between a suckish streaming site and a good one.
Own3d shut down. Azubu is making a push, and I have a feeling that the GEM represented players/personalities are getting behind to give it some extra oomf. (Take a look at who's been streaming recently on Azubu from the SC2 side of things.)
Not sure if I'd think of Azubu as serious competition at this point, but it seems to have name recognition over someone like hitbox. And unless you're French, you're unlikely to look at DailyMotion. Still, Twitch is the reigning giant in the market niche, and I can see them being pretty attractive to someone looking to expand into that space.
If Google buys Twitch, hopefully they leave it independent but offer monetary and technical support - without me having to say "No!" to a prompt and be told "Okay, we'll ask you again later..."
I didn't really like the way google took over youtube, trying to use it to force us to use their crappy products (like google plus) and ruining youtube in the process.
On May 20 2014 01:37 Wombat_NI wrote: Is Twitch even THAT big for E-Sports content? Outside of the current big hitters every time I log there are a lot of Let's Plays and people watching single player games as well.
Esports made twitch what it is today. However, it was a symbiotic relationship and twitch helped make esports what it is today as well. Esports titles still dominate it by a fair margin.
Here's the top 10 games on twitch right now. If you add up the viewers of the top 4 esports games lol, dota, cs and sc2 it accounts for about 73% of total viewers right now. I left out hearthstone right now because it can be an esport title too, but also a casual experience for people. However, I have no problem adding hearth to the esports total too and if I did, the number would rise to about 81%.
Sure people play single player pc games and there's let's plays on twitch, but the amount of viewers for those games are pretty small in comparison to esports viewers. The console revolution is still young, so not that fair to compare yet, but these are the top 10 streams for xbox one and ps4. They are paltry in comparison to pc games, let alone esports games.
This is djwheat, the gunrun and the rest of them right now as they count their millions!
However, this leads me to a question about former employees and whether or not they get to cash in too. Like I know 2gd worked for twitch, but that was a while ago, so not sure if he still has any stock after he left. However, I know that Jared Rae guy recently left twitch to work for 2k games. Is he going to miss out on the big pay day?
eSports definitely made Twitch that it is today. That being said they did do a relatively good job with Own3d shutting down. Hopefully this means another competitor will rise so we're not stuck with the Goog monopoly.