Google Acquiring Twitch for $1 Billion
Following an earlier report from May, a new report from GamesBeat has confirmed Google’s purchasing of game-streaming service Twitch to the tune of $1 billion.
GamesBeat cited “sources familiar with the matter” as having confirmed the acquisition despite earlier claims from the Wall Street Journal that talks between Google and Twitch were “at an early stage.” Google already owns the venerable video sharing platform YouTube which it purchased back in 2006 for $1.65 million.
Twitch was first launched back in 2011 and is now the most popular destination for video game livestreamers. More the 50 million individual users stream and watch games on Twitch each month according to the site’s analytics and Twitch streaming capabilities have since grown past their PC roots with a number of different platforms, including game consoles and mobile devices, now capable of streaming live gameplay footage.
How Google’s acquisition of Twitch will affect the streaming platform remains to be seen. There is already a direct connection between Twitch and YouTube (streamers can upload saved replays of their archived videos directly to YouTube from their Twitch channel page) but Google undoubtedly has its own plans for deepening the synergy between the two platforms.
