Live data from Hacker News

Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

businessinsider.com

11–20 of 46 posts

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#12

I think we should take a step back for a second and remember that before Twitch it was largely impossible to turn video game skills into a paying career. Now many top players are able to finance their lives while still concentrating on their game. There are of course kinks that need to be worked out, but now you at least have one option, before you had zero.

There were other services before twitch. Before it was shut down, Own3d tv provided a decent income for a few streamers.

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#13
post #5

This is THE thing that governments should solve. It should be illegal for companies to refuse service to anyone or offer them worse terms that someone they never did business with. Even more generally, it should be illegal to ban users from any service, and censor public speech in any way, even on private forums.

Are you suggesting that using a company's hosted product should be a right?

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#14
post #12

I think we should take a step back for a second and remember that before Twitch it was largely impossible to turn video game skills into a paying career. Now many top players are able to finance their lives while still concentrating on their game. There are of course kinks that need to be worked out, but now you at least have one option, before you had zero.

There were other services before twitch. Before it was shut down, Own3d tv provided a decent income for a few streamers.

The thing with Own3d was that for the most part its streaming service simply did not match that of Twitch. The layout and mobile support was a bit better (streams that used Own3d were far more convenient to access since they played from the browser), but the quality was lacking. Twitch, on the other hand, has focused on what matters: the stream quality. Now that there layout has been updated, they would have smoked own3d even more IMO.

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#15

I think we should take a step back for a second and remember that before Twitch it was largely impossible to turn video game skills into a paying career. Now many top players are able to finance their lives while still concentrating on their game. There are of course kinks that need to be worked out, but now you at least have one option, before you had zero.

Prior to the existence of Twitch there were at least a couple thousand people playing video games professionally. Most of these players played FPS, RTS, or MOBA (not that the term existed at the time) games competitively. I believe they still do, and that they are still not dependent on Twitch for their income.

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#16

I think we should take a step back for a second and remember that before Twitch it was largely impossible to turn video game skills into a paying career. Now many top players are able to finance their lives while still concentrating on their game. There are of course kinks that need to be worked out, but now you at least have one option, before you had zero.

Live streaming of games. Many people are making hundreds of thousands / millions of dollars without Twitch, using Youtube.

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#17
post #9

own3d.tv was a good competitor and they failed to be profitable

I've always wondered why YouTube doesn't push seriously into the video game and eSport streaming business.

Most streamers have YouTube channels that they advertise on Twitch. YouTube is obviously massively popular, and could possible grant more audience to eSport streamers. YouTube has streaming, but it feels like a side-project.

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#19

While I agree with the sentiment, the current "competitors" that have shown up are either equally twitchy about TOS violations [1], have abysmally poor performance in many areas of the world (again I'm referring to ustream.tv), or are basically scams[2]. They've also been pretty good about talking to people about their TOS violations and reverting bans if necessary [3]. [1] http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/04/tech/web/hugo…

The story behind [3]: http://blog.twitch.tv/2013/04/regarding-todays-assorted-inci...

Re: Why Twitch Needs A Competitor

#20

I think we should take a step back for a second and remember that before Twitch it was largely impossible to turn video game skills into a paying career. Now many top players are able to finance their lives while still concentrating on their game. There are of course kinks that need to be worked out, but now you at least have one option, before you had zero.

Are there any publications regarding how much money Twitch streamers make?

I imagine actual regular casters of top eSports, like LoL and SC2, are making much more money than some dude streaming World of Warcraft.

Post reply on HN