Google purchases Twitch (Edit: LOL nope it's Amazon)
- Thread starter Ⓐaron
- Start date
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
Honestly Twitch was already fucking up pretty big before the buy out anyway.
I was really soured on Twitch due to there god awful business practices a few years ago and then there really fucked up infrastructure switch earlier this year. Both of the times they just ignored the huge backlash and kept going forward.
Remember Turbo? Remember paying for that to not get ads and to get higher quality streams if the streamer opted for it? Well I remember paying for that and then getting fucked by the paid subs option a few months down the road which did what Turbo used to do and better.
Well gee why would I still pay for turbo if I potentially dont get the option to see Source/High and I still get ads? Oh and if I dont want to get stuck with ads/lower quality I have to sub to each streamer separately. Fun.
When the PS4/XBO came out they switched there video transmission methods to be more "adequate for console streamers and viewers". IIRC the method would send extremely small packets of video of about 1-5 seconds long to "reduce buffering". What happened? Buffering got worse, Skips got higher and it also added at minimum a 40 second delay to every streamer on twitch.
I have a 50mbps down connection. I was completely unable to watch twitch on anything higher then low quality (about sub 240p) and it lasted for months. I couldnt even stream it to VLC anymore using some python scripts. All the while thousands upon thousands of comments piled up on the site bashing the new system and all twitch did was argue with the people begging for a solution. I for one had my posting privileges revoked from the blog just for pointing it out. Seriously it was full on Tethar Atrum ACF. God awful.
The mods involved there ended up getting fired IIRC but the situation was still absolutely awful and they got away with BS after BS because no true competitor exists.
Thankfully they tweaked it (only took them 7 months!) and Twitch is much more watchable for everyone again now but issues are still there like the huge Delay with the streamer.
Dont even get me started with there issues in Europe.
All things considered even if Google royally fucks this up it can only get better.
I was really soured on Twitch due to there god awful business practices a few years ago and then there really fucked up infrastructure switch earlier this year. Both of the times they just ignored the huge backlash and kept going forward.
Remember Turbo? Remember paying for that to not get ads and to get higher quality streams if the streamer opted for it? Well I remember paying for that and then getting fucked by the paid subs option a few months down the road which did what Turbo used to do and better.
Well gee why would I still pay for turbo if I potentially dont get the option to see Source/High and I still get ads? Oh and if I dont want to get stuck with ads/lower quality I have to sub to each streamer separately. Fun.
When the PS4/XBO came out they switched there video transmission methods to be more "adequate for console streamers and viewers". IIRC the method would send extremely small packets of video of about 1-5 seconds long to "reduce buffering". What happened? Buffering got worse, Skips got higher and it also added at minimum a 40 second delay to every streamer on twitch.
I have a 50mbps down connection. I was completely unable to watch twitch on anything higher then low quality (about sub 240p) and it lasted for months. I couldnt even stream it to VLC anymore using some python scripts. All the while thousands upon thousands of comments piled up on the site bashing the new system and all twitch did was argue with the people begging for a solution. I for one had my posting privileges revoked from the blog just for pointing it out. Seriously it was full on Tethar Atrum ACF. God awful.
The mods involved there ended up getting fired IIRC but the situation was still absolutely awful and they got away with BS after BS because no true competitor exists.
Thankfully they tweaked it (only took them 7 months!) and Twitch is much more watchable for everyone again now but issues are still there like the huge Delay with the streamer.
Dont even get me started with there issues in Europe.
All things considered even if Google royally fucks this up it can only get better.
Fangu
Great Old One
If they can fix the lag so it's possible to have some kind of conversation with your viewers, plus offer an option to change the quality of the video when viewing (a huge issue for viewers with low speed Internet) - WHOOP DE FUCKING DOO!
So: Yeah, they can't do much worse. Twitch has always had its issues. (The JavaScript that gave you "Video saved!" messages without even contacting the server (thus not saving any video at all because your log in was timed out) is one of the more horrible continuous bugs I've seen on a web site.)
So: Yeah, they can't do much worse. Twitch has always had its issues. (The JavaScript that gave you "Video saved!" messages without even contacting the server (thus not saving any video at all because your log in was timed out) is one of the more horrible continuous bugs I've seen on a web site.)
Cthulhu
Administrator
- AKA
- Yop
Oh there has been some competition, I'm sure - IIRC Google tried it with live programs on youtube and the like, Ami and co use youtube for their live stream and shit - but nobody uses it because Twitch is the go-to platform for that stuff. They got the market share and whatnot.
With that in mind, Google's move is very predictable; they try to compete (Google Video, anyone?) for a while, then adopt the 'if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em' strategy. Because that's what Google's good at - buying stuff. They've got so much money they don't know where to put it, besides buying other companies and investing in internet balloons and shit,
IDK where this'll end up going. Probably forced Google+ integration and ads and the like.
With that in mind, Google's move is very predictable; they try to compete (Google Video, anyone?) for a while, then adopt the 'if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em' strategy. Because that's what Google's good at - buying stuff. They've got so much money they don't know where to put it, besides buying other companies and investing in internet balloons and shit,
IDK where this'll end up going. Probably forced Google+ integration and ads and the like.
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
Well yeah there are competitors lol, Azubu, Hitbox, Ustream ect. but they werent enough of a force for to make Twitch think twice about the BS they would pull lol.
I definitely see forced G+ on some scale.. Ad's are already there for partnered streamers so no big deal there as well I think at worst it will change from the ads being at the Streamers discretion to being Googles discretion worst case scenario.
I definitely see forced G+ on some scale.. Ad's are already there for partnered streamers so no big deal there as well I think at worst it will change from the ads being at the Streamers discretion to being Googles discretion worst case scenario.
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
I honestly don't think Google have made that many wrong moves with Youtube. Forcing G+ accounts on people was their biggest fuck-up (and has stopped me from commenting on the site for months now), but other than that, they've kept it running pretty smoothly while its popularity - and thus its bandwidth demands - have grown enormously. There's definitely room for improvement on Twitch, as people above me in this thread have pointed out, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this takeover works out for the better.
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
I hadn't thought of that..
Youtube has a very awful punish first ask questions never system with there content ID sweeper that leaves the burden of proof on the punished. Proving innocence on youtube can take at minimum a month at which time any chance of making the most possible money off content matched videos has long since passed. And thats an optimistic scenario.
Given streamers love for having music playing in the background of streams the doors will be wide open for warnings, strikes and closures of channels most of which will come swift and without warning. Especially considering under youtubes ToS 1 strike removes several key privileges from the user for a minimum of 6 months, such as the removal of Monetization options and a lifelong BAN to the MCN and Partner programs.
Lets not even bother jumping into fair use and using video games to make money on youtube. They look the other way 99% of the time but when a game dev doesn't like what you have to say about there game Google has proven multiple times they will always take the publisher/dev's side initially.
It would be very interesting to see how a "TotalBiscuit" scenario plays out on the Stream side of the network.
Cthulhu
Administrator
- AKA
- Yop
Yeah speaking of, how's copyright and shit on twitch going? Since as you mentioned, people regularly use copyrighted background music and stuff. I'm somehow sure streaming video games is in some way a copyright violation too - except that the games industry doesn't believe it's losing income over it. And I know some of us have just been streaming movies and TV shows over it.
IDK if Twitch ever got any flak for that, but IIRC the various companies only went after Youtube after Google bought it and thus there was a lot of monies to be gained.
IDK if Twitch ever got any flak for that, but IIRC the various companies only went after Youtube after Google bought it and thus there was a lot of monies to be gained.
Fangu
Great Old One
o_O
Better start downloading the flash files then X(
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2014/08/07/twitch-archives-copyright/1
Uuuuggghhh well present me with a decent export function then
Interslicery
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Ⓐaron
Factiō Rēpūblicāna dēlenda est.
- AKA
- The Man, V
AMA with CEO. This is gonna be a clusterfuck.
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
This is so silly lol.
VODS from Valves TI2 have been muted during segments where they had licenses for the music used.
VODS for Riots LCS have been muted for using Riots OWN theme song for the Summoners Rift lol.
Vods of LoL pros have been muted because of Riots SR music to even though they have full permission.
Once again Google proves it isnt able to reign in its own Content ID sweeper. This is the exact same shit that went down in the winter on YT lol.
Tons of streamers have already been tweeting that they are looking into Hitbox lol.
VODS from Valves TI2 have been muted during segments where they had licenses for the music used.
VODS for Riots LCS have been muted for using Riots OWN theme song for the Summoners Rift lol.
Vods of LoL pros have been muted because of Riots SR music to even though they have full permission.
Once again Google proves it isnt able to reign in its own Content ID sweeper. This is the exact same shit that went down in the winter on YT lol.
Tons of streamers have already been tweeting that they are looking into Hitbox lol.
Ⓐaron
Factiō Rēpūblicāna dēlenda est.
- AKA
- The Man, V
Some highlights from the AMA:
- An image link to Twitch's weekly podcast getting flagged by their system as "Third Party Content".
- The Dota 2 international VODs were muted despite Value running the contest, meaning the entire content is their music.
- The CEO explains that the Dota 2 contest picked crowd noise, which resulted in the flagging. This proves that it does not work as intended.
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
I wonder what they have to say in the AMA about the music for Crypt of the Necrodancer getting flagged.
The game isnt even out yet, its a original sound track all owned by the owners of CoftN and they didnt upload it at all to audible magic and have no idea why/how there unreleased OST is there in the first place.
The game isnt even out yet, its a original sound track all owned by the owners of CoftN and they didnt upload it at all to audible magic and have no idea why/how there unreleased OST is there in the first place.
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
Just noticed this question.
Back in the day on youtube before MCN's started getting big enough to protect every partner in there program or if you were doing the AdSense program there were actually ways to get limited use licences to single games.
I dont know if the contact methods are still there but essentially all you had to do was contact the game publisher, show them an episode or pilot of the content you wanted to make with there game license and then make a case as to why what your doing with there stuff is unique and would be worth while for them to allow you to legally use there content on YT.
Again this was several years ago but it could be worth looking into
Geostigma
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- gabe
Heres an interesting perspective on everything.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RonAmadeo/posts/e5VJHRYsNEE
Ron is legit and trust worthy when it comes to google and Droid news and info so if he is right it could explain quite a bit.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RonAmadeo/posts/e5VJHRYsNEE
Ron is legit and trust worthy when it comes to google and Droid news and info so if he is right it could explain quite a bit.
Flintlock
Pro Adventurer
I agree with just about every word of that video.
The guilty-until-proven-innocent process is such BS, but it's actually part of the DMCA law. That's what really needs to change.
Cthulhu
Administrator
- AKA
- Yop
The acquisition falling through and Twitch needing to cut down costs fast sounds viable - having tons of old videos around costs them a small fortune in storage, I'm sure, and deleting everything >60 days old will have a neat impact on that. Still, storage is probably cheaper than the bandwidth they're using. IDK.