Twitch on Steam Broadcasting: ‘It’s validating’

Earlier today, Valve introduced its method for livestreaming gameplay, and now the leader in that sector is responding.

Twitch isn’t too worried about this new competition. The streaming-video company has the backing of Amazon after the Internet retailer plunked down $970 million to acquire Twitch in August. With that kind of money behind it, and that no other platform has challenged Twitch for livestreaming gameplay for years, Twitch vice president of marketing Matthew DiPietro is confident that Steam Broadcasting won’t eat up too much of the market.

“We are huge fans of Steam and work with Valve regularly on various events and product integrations,” DiPietro told GamesBeat in a statement. “While Steam’s broadcasting solution and the Twitch platform are very different with vastly different feature sets, it’s really validating to see a company like Valve embrace streaming in this way.”

The different feature sets that DiPietro is alluding to are many. Twitch enables players to start broadcasting immediately; Steam won’t begin until someone asks to start watching. Twitch also has a partnership program, advertising, and subscriptions that all provide ways for broadcasters to earn an income.

Steam Broadcasting, meanwhile, is just hours old, and it likely won’t emerge from beta for quite some time. And it will have a long battle if it is trying to snatch the video market.

Twitch has tens of millions of monthly viewers and over 1 million individual broadcasters. This doesn’t just make the site a platform for video — it’s also turning into one of the biggest communities for gamers on the Web.

So for now, Twitch is at least publicly viewing Steam Broadcasting as a sign that livestreaming is here to stay.

“Live video is the future of social connectivity for gamers and this is another proof point,” said DiPietro. “We wish Valve the best of luck.”