Google is about to launch something a lot like Twitch. It's YouTube Gaming.

At an event held at YouTube Space LA on 12 June, Google previewed a new initiative called YouTube Gaming. It's a mobile app as well as a website designed to showcase YouTube's gaming content. YouTube Gaming will not only feature dedicated pages for games, but also live-streaming capabilities, among many other things.

Twitch is all about live streaming too. It's an Amazon.com-owned platform and website that primarily focused on video gaming. Gamers can use it to see playthroughs of video games by other users as well as broadcast and view e-sports competitions. All content on Twitch can be viewed live or on an on-demand basis.

If you're a Twitch user and want to know more about Google's latest live-stream/gaming effort, we've detailed everything you need to know about YouTube Gaming. Be sure to check out our gallery of screenshots as well.

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Google

What are some key YouTube Gaming feature?

Landing pages

YouTube said more than 25,000 games are getting their own landing pages with YouTube Gaming, and you can expect each page to display videos and live streams. You will essentially be able to search for your favorite title (like Shadow of Mordor) and add it to your "collection" in order to see all sorts of related videos and streams.

Search

Apart from landing pages, you will be able to browse and subscribe to channels from game publishers and indie YouTube creators. In fact, when searching within YouTube Gaming, you will only see gaming results. There's no Justin Bieber music videos on YouTube Gaming, basically. YouTube Gaming will also offer up recommendations.

Live streams

YouTube is clearly going after Twitch, because it's putting a big focus on live-streaming games.

It is offering a redesign Live broadcasting system with features like high frame rates at 60fps, DVR functionality, and the ability to automatically convert live streams to a YouTube video. You won't even have to schedule events ahead of time anymore, and you'll be able to share a link to all your live streams.

Monetise

Yup. You can monetise live streams through adverts, though there is no premium subscription option yet.

Why is Google trying YouTube Gaming?

Google wants YouTube Gaming to be separate from YouTube.

During an announcement blog post, the company specifically wrote: "You can search with confidence, knowing that typing 'call' will show you 'Call of Duty' and not 'Call Me Maybe'". But keep in mind that YouTube Gaming is not an entirely new platform. These videos also exist on YouTube.

Similar to how Google Photos is designed to surface long-forgotten photos in new and interesting ways, it appears as though YouTube Gaming is designed to surface buried video game-related videos and streams you might want to see but can't easily locate among all the other videos populating the main YouTube service.

Also, Google and Amazon are competitors. And Amazon owns Twitch. By adding robust live-streaming capabilities, DVR, and more to YouTube Gaming, Google might be able to grow it into a full-blown Twitch rival.

When will YouTube Gaming become available?

Google plans to launch this service on 26 August, but it will initially only be available in the US and UK.

You'll be able to access it at the following site: gaming.youtube.com. It'll also have Android and iOS apps. The apps are scheduled to go live at 10am PT. You can see a placeholder version of YouTube Gaming's site here.

Want to know more?

Google said E3 attendees will get demonstrations of YouTube Gaming. Pocket-lint will be at the show all next week, so keep checking back for the latest and breaking news. YouTube is also hosting live previews and interviews here.