YouTube’s answer to Twitch is launching later today

Initial responses to YouTube Gaming have been excellent, and now the company feels confident enough to release its standalone Twitch competitor to the public. Apparently the live-streaming service will be launching in Europe and North America later today, with an Australia launch expected sometime tomorrow. 

YouTube Gaming, the video service’s answer to Twitch, will launch August 26 in North America and Europe, and August 27 in Australia. In addition to this newly launched landing page (which boasts a nifty interactive logo), YouTube Gaming will also have iOS and Android applications.  The service will allow 60fps streaming, and the ability to easily convert streams into archived YouTube videos. Over 25,000 games will have their own dedicated pages at launch, and the search functionality will prize game-related results (Google claims “when you search ‘call’, you’ll end up with Call of Duty, not Call Me Maybe”.) There’s not much else to report at this stage, though we’ll be keeping an eye on how the launch pans out. So will Twitch, of course: the company released their own statement today, promising important developments in the near future.