YouTube signs game news personality Geoff Keighley to host live E3 coverage

YouTube has signed gaming personality Geoff Keighley to host a 12-hour livestream at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the big video game trade show that kicks off the week of June 14.

Keighley will host a live show about E3 announcements on June 15. The move is an effort by Google’s YouTube to grab more share of the viewing audience from other livestream rivals such as Amazon’s Twitch livestreaming service. Rather than just post videos after the fact, YouTube is putting more emphasis on live show coverage.

E3 draws thousands of press, tens of thousands of industry attendees, and millions of views online for the big press unveils that take place at the show, which runs from Sunday June 14 through Thursday June 18. (We’ll be sending a crew of five writers to E3 from GamesBeat.)

Keighley said in an email that he is thrilled to bring E3 to millions of gamers via YouTube, the world’s largest video platform, as part of rethinking how E3 should be covered. His mission, he said, is to “bring live video game programming to YouTube in a big way.”

Keighley reminisced that he first attending the original E3 in 1995, when he was 16 years old. The show was restricted to those 18 and over, so he had to carry a special permission letter in his pocket to avoid getting kicked out. Over two decades, he covered E3 and the game industry for networks such as G4 and Spike TV. Now, after leaving Spike last year, Keighley has created The Game Awards, which aired last fall in Las Vegas. And he is now unveiling the YouTube partnership. The live show will feature guests such as Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and the creators at Telltale Games, creator of the Game of Thrones episodic title, among others.

Besides Keighley, YouTube is also featuring other livestreams and trailer launches from the event, starting on Sunday, June 14, with the the Nintendo World Championships, followed by the Bethesda press conference and the unveiling of the latest installment in the “Doom” series.

Keighley and other YouTube gaming personalities will offer live coverage of press conferences from publishers like Xbox, Sony, EA, and Ubisoft. The program will include live play sessions of the games and celebrity interviews with other video game stars on YouTube. There will also be live coverage from IGN and GameSpot, just like last year. All of the video will be available for viewing on YouTube’s E3 hub, and YouTube will have its own booth at the show, hosted by RoosterTeeth.