Google announced they have entered into a partnership with Activision Blizzard that will lead to live streaming of esports broadcasts such as Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, and Hearthstone Esports, on YouTube. The deal will also allow Activision Blizzard to use Google’s cloud infrastructure for hosting games so that the same can be made available to players with the least latency period.
The deal seeks an even wider collaboration between the two what with Activision Blizzard getting access to Google AI toolset as well. This, in turn, will enable the company to provide the most personalised gaming experience to users given that Google already has a superior information base about the sort of things that its users would prefer and things that they’d stay clear of.
Now, Activision Blizzard wishes to tap into that to provides highly specialised services such as game recommendations, related offers and such. This way, the company hopes to provide for the most specialised and superior gaming experience.
Both Google and Activision Blizzard has had a partnership going in the past as per which both companies worked on a few of the mobile titles of the publisher. However, the present tie-up seeks a broader and more intense collaboration between the two than ever before.
All of this no doubt spells bad news for competitors such as Twitch and Mixer. Interestingly, Activision Blizzard had a partnership with Twitch in the past. That led to the first two seasons of Overwatch League to be streamed on Twitch though that’s going to change with this season. The esports league is set to kick off on Feb. 8 and will be streamed exclusively on YouTube.
The above also applies to Call of Duty League that starts off this Friday itself. Similarly, Blizzard’s official Hearthstone Esports tournaments will henceforth be available only on YouTube worldwide. Both the companies have claimed the deal to have a span of several years though it is not known specifically how many years the above arrangement will last. Till there is a change announced, it’s YouTube that gamers worldwide (except China) will have to turn to for watching live streaming of esports league.
