YouTube to launch app, site for gaming videos

YouTube has announced that it will launch a separate site, app for gaming videos.

To be called YouTube Gaming, the site will look to compete with video service giants like Twitch and Steam Broadcasting. While Twitch is an Amazon-owned streaming service that allows gaming fans to watch, interact with live broadcasts of other gamers playing games, Steam Broadcasting, which is less popular, caters to PC gamers.

As a service, YouTube Gaming, which will be available this summer in the US and UK, will be a one-stop shop for users to find gaming videos, live streams and Internet personalities.

"We'll launch an improved live experience that makes it simpler to broadcast your gameplay to YouTube," said Alan Joyce, product manager for YouTube Gaming.

"On top of existing features like high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR and automatically converting your stream into a YouTube video, we're redesigning our system so that you no longer need to schedule a live event ahead of time. We're also creating single link you can share for all your streams," he added.

The launch assumes significance as Google, which owns YouTube, is understood to have made a bid for Twitch last year, to be beaten by Amazon's $970 million offer.

While YouTube remains the dominant online video site, Twitch has solidified itself over the past three years as a destination to stream gameplay. It now boasts 100 million users who watch 1.5 million broadcasters a month.

"We're building this just for gamers -- so we want to hear from you about how we can make it the best way to connect with your community," Joyce wrote in the blog post.