Youtube is going to buy Twitch for one billion of your earth dollars.

[Fabricated]

Source.

Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact.

The deal, in an all-cash offer, is expected to be announced imminently, sources said. If completed the acquisition would be the most significant in the history of YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The impending acquisition comes after longtime Google ad exec Susan Wojcicki was named CEO of YouTube earlier this year.

I mean, does Twitch actually make money? I mean as in come in net positive overall?

[MrHat]

Wow.

All that console integration?

[Chimpy]

Google paying what they did for YouTube was pretty questionable as well. My guess is, like YouTube this is more about some form of underlying technology. Plus, another place to track user info and add Google+ ... oh wait they took G+ out back and shot it like the dog it is didn't they?

[Maven]

I think they see the ad revenue that would come with an increasing audience watching other people play video games and consider it a worthy investment. I would much rather watch a compelling game experience for casual entertainment than anything on television.

[Fabricated]

Google paying what they did for YouTube was pretty questionable as well. My guess is, like YouTube this is more about some form of underlying technology. Plus, another place to track user info and add Google+ ... oh wait they took G+ out back and shot it like the dog it is didn't they?

Actually no they didn't; they've just been forcefully integrating G+ into literally all their platforms. You have no choice but to effectively have a G+ account if you want to do anything with an account on youtube now.

[Chimpy]

I read a couple articles saying they are basically dumping the "G+ or Bust" philosophy very recently.

[Paelos]

They should dump G+. It's garbage.

[satael]

I guess I'm just happy it isn't Facebook that's buying Twitch which shows how low expectations I have for deals like this nowadays. 

[Rendakor]

I wonder if that means they'll be bringing Youtube's super aggressive copyright infringement policy to Twitch. I'd hate to have to stop streaming because I'm not allowed to play background music.

[calapine]

I guess I'm just happy it isn't Facebook that's buying Twitch which shows how low expectations I have for deals like this nowadays. 

I wish I'd work at The Onion. I am having this idea for a "Facebook buys your Girlfriend!" headline...

[Phildo]

Is it at all possible that they are also buying out a competitor?  They can integrate it into Youtube in sort of the same way that Vimeo is, and drive all that traffic back to Youtube itself.

[Rendakor]

Is it at all possible that they are also buying out a competitor?  They can integrate it into Youtube in sort of the same way that Vimeo is, and drive all that traffic back to Youtube itself.

That's what it seems like to me; at the very least they can use YT to host archived videos and suggest related Youtube videos on any given twitch stream.

[schild]

I am completely fine with this purchase.

[Kail]

I wonder if that means they'll be bringing Youtube's super aggressive copyright infringement policy to Twitch. I'd hate to have to stop streaming because I'm not allowed to play background music.

Hadn't thought about that, that's going to be a big deal for some people.  Almost all of the top channels use copyrighted music, even the big name tournament casts do it to fill downtime between rounds / maps / whatever.

[Rendakor]

I'm not sure if their algorithms will be able to detect it while streaming (since I know fuckall about how that works) but it'll kill archived broadcasts; if they start deleting accounts it'll piss off a ton of people.

[ezrast]

I'm shocked that's lasted as long as it has. I'm pretty sure they, or at least their close relative justin.tv, put quite a bit of effort into weeding out illicit TV/movie rebroadcasts. I don't understand why the RIAA isn't all over them.

[Lucas]

Got no problem with this, looking forward to a proper YT gaming sub-section. Assimilation!

[Fabricated]

gonna own when some popular streamer gets his account automatically deleted during a broadcast because his phone went off in the background and played copyrighted music

[ezrast]

Can't wait to be forced to merge my Twitch account to my YouTube account which is merged to my G+ account that was originally a gmail account. Editing my user settings isn't enough of a pain in the ass already.

[jakonovski]

Monopoly here we come.

[Sky]

They've mashed a ton of my accounts together with mergers and G+, it's really aggravating.

I have a bunch of people that want to do a group painting session regularly using G+ BUT I FUCKING CAN'T because my accounts are all knotted up between my professional and 2 personal (family and friends) accounts.

So fuck G+ bloody.

[Hoax]

I can't wait for something or someone to come down hard on Google. I remember when they actually lived by the whole "do no evil" bit. Now they are just Microsoft 2.0, I'm having a real hard time thinking of a single thing they had done in the past few years to gmail or yotube that wasn't just a massive pain in the ass.

Spoke with a Twitch employee today briefly on muni and he said they are hoping that they are going to continue to operate independently but that nobody at the lower levels knows dick yet.

[schild]

What is Google doing, precisely, that qualifies as evil?

[Hoax]

They basically lobby as hard as anyone now while trying desperately to not let any word get out on where they are giving out slush-dollars. Everything they have done since they decided to try to out Facebook Facebook has been evil (fine not literally evil) in terms of annoying the motherfucking shit out of me.

I had this exact discussion with a google employee. He was all "we aren't evil, we're just doing what any corporation would do" and that made me feel like he didn't get it. Google used to make shit that just worked the best they could make it work. Now it works the best for them, or G+, or advertisers or whatever the fuck the motive is but its clear that most of these "features" were not user requested.

[KallDrexx]

This is going to be a disaster for Twitch.

More and more are youtubers getting DMCA takedown notices because someone is giving a legit review of a game.  Furthermore, people on twitch usually at least have background music that will get caught by the automatic copyright algorithms.

[schild]

I don't understand, I ignore Google+ and all their other shit works fine for me. I don't log into Youtube, and I don't know why anybody would. Furthermore, I don't see them rolling Twitch into Youtube, but I certainly see them integrating some tech into Youtube.

Anyway, yea, I'm just not seeing this as a bitch fest.

[Rendakor]

I don't understand, I ignore Google+ and all their other shit works fine for me. I don't log into Youtube, and I don't know why anybody would. Furthermore, I don't see them rolling Twitch into Youtube, but I certainly see them integrating some tech into Youtube.

Anyway, yea, I'm just not seeing this as a bitch fest.

I've managed to keep my YT account without signing up for G+, but it's been a struggle. However, I have had numerous videos deleted and gotten warnings for music; if they apply the same policy to Twitch I'll either stop streaming or just stream without audio entirely.

[Evildrider]

I should just send an offer to Google to buy me out.  It's inevitable.. Google is the new Skynet.

[Thrawn]

I would assume sometime in the future we're going to see a huge amount of archived Twitch videos removed due to DMCA take downs as well as much tighter rules on what you can stream and what music you can stream while you do it.  I fail to see any upside to this for end users.

[Miasma]

I should just send an offer to Google to buy me out.  It's inevitable.. Google is the new Skynet.

They literally purchased that evil company that was creating those horrific killer robot videos.

[Paelos]

I would assume sometime in the future we're going to see a huge amount of archived Twitch videos removed due to DMCA take downs as well as much tighter rules on what you can stream and what music you can stream while you do it.  I fail to see any upside to this for end users.

Maybe they'll stop using shitty music to overlay something I want to watch?

[Lucas]

I would assume sometime in the future we're going to see a huge amount of archived Twitch videos removed due to DMCA take downs as well as much tighter rules on what you can stream and what music you can stream while you do it.  I fail to see any upside to this for end users.

Maybe they'll stop using shitty music to overlay something I want to watch?

fuckin' A-MEN. Them and their shitty music applied to [insert ANY game streamed on Twitch, really :P] that probably makes them feel so cool.

[Rendakor]

Alternatively, we'll just stop streaming; I like listening to music while playing.

[Trippy]

That's fine. Just don't mix it into your stream.

[Ingmar]

DMCA takedowns are not really Google's fault in any case.