Earlier this evening, several sources, including Forbes and Variety, have reported that Google’s YouTube division will shortly be announcing a $1 Billion Dollar deal to acquire the gaming-centric streaming giant Twitch.TV. The move, if confirmed, would come as something of a surprise to the public, as Google has to date displayed only the vaguest of interests in the mainstream gaming market – and even more so for Twitch.TV, having just landed the exclusive streaming rights to the ESA’s Electronic Entertainment Expo as well as the contract to stream the Interactive Entertainment events at the x-Games.
This alleged acquisition, if finalized, would raise two major points of attention. Firstly, fans of the service will naturally wonder after the degree to which Twitch.TV will change as a service – it’s early yet for a grounded estimation, but given Google’s history as a corporation that tends – with some notable exceptions – to acquire rather than absorb, there is room for hope that Twitch.TV will remain largely unchanged. Frankly speaking, Twitch.TV isn’t broken. It could stand a bit of polish, and perhaps a bit of improvement to the archival editing system, but by and large the service became popular to the point of ubiquity by virtue of its’ inherent quality and reliability, and as such, it would be hard to imagine the justification (Teehee) of any major alterations.
There has a been a great deal of speculation about whether Google would ever dip its giant toes into the interactive entertainment industry, and if so how, and to what degree. Google has previously made some exploratory gestures in this direction, most notably announcing the partnership of the PlayStation Store and the Sony Entertainment Network and the Google Android branding, as well as quietly hiring personnel with experience in console manufacturing, as well as pre-existing hardware manufacturers like Green Throttle Gaming, and the like. This is a horse of an altogether different color – with a reported 43 million viewers a month, Twitch.TV has become a household name to any fan of the industry, and is unquestionably the biggest entry in its category. The acquisition of companies that are tertiary to the industry is a safe and clever one, as it will benefit from the growth of the industry without tying itself to a specific competitor and therefore running the risk of backing the wrong horse. Additionally, it will be interesting to see what the overlap in technologies between the YouTube division and Twitch.TV will end up producing in tandem.
UPDATE: This morning, representatives of both the YouTube division of Google and Twitch.TV confirmed that talks are in progress. Twitch.TV reportedly entertained offers from several major organizations, as well as considered alternative means of monetization, before entering into serious talks with YouTube. Details, such as autonomy and final financial negotiations are being finalized today.