STEAM BROADCASTING In the new steam beta update

[blake0812]

http://steamcommunity.com/updates/broadcasting

REV UP THOSE BETAS, IT'S HAPPENING

 

[Red Storm]

Cool stuff.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

this should be fun.

 

[MustISO]

kinda cool

 

[WiseUp216]

INB4 "watching other people play games is stoopid!"

I look forward to checking this out when I get home. I started using Twitch this year and found it to be really enjoyable.

I was looking at Hitbox over the weekend but the number of users is too low to make any real judgement yet. The design is pretty slick and has potential.

If this is implemented correctly, I imagine Steam will have loads of streamers right off the bat.

 

[Dankk]

Both me and a coworker just tried it out. We had to try requesting to watch at least a couple times before it would actually let us watch without errors. The image quality isn't too bad, but the latency was absolutely horrid; there was a whopping ~10 second delay between our computers (it's easy to tell since our desks are right next to each other). We have a great internet connection so that shouldn't be an issue.

It's in beta of course though, so I imagine it will get better.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

when i actually used onlive one of the funnest things was to watch people play amnesia. loved seeing all the reactions to the creepy things that would pop up.

 

[JamesV]

The Workshop has been a huge hit on Steam for many games I play like Don't Starve and Prison Architect.

I bet this will be huge also.

One of the things I like about Steam is that everything is in one place. Other than retarded devs like Squad (Kerbal Space Program) that make you go to god awful Curse to download things, most seem to have embraced the Workshop.

I wonder if any code changes are needed to broadcast on Steam, or if it simply some kind of remote-view thing and independent of the game.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

does this only work for certain games? i wonder if you could use it to stream nba games or something (via 3rd party game option).

i usually go on /r/nbastreams or /r/nflstreams since i cut the cord.

[edit] just read that people have been streaming "random stuff" through vlc. also apparently there's a bug where the game crashes while your broadcasting but it continues to broadcast your desktop because the overlay is still running.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I won't go so far as to say it is stupid, but just seems completely pointless. I'm an avid gamer yes, but I have zero desire to watch others play games. I also have zero desire to have others watch me play games (I just don't get that at all -- must be the me me me look at me fb crowd).


But the..supposedly 28 million people watched LOL finals? Just seems...wow...stupid.

 

[SunnyD]

Because bandwidth is something I can afford.

 

[rivethead]

(I just don't get that at all -- must be the me me me look at me fb crowd).

So I guess this is the Steam version of the selfie stick.

 

[CPA]

It will be interesting if this has any impact on Twitch. Also, I haven't looked at it, but does it allow users to monetize their streaming like Twitch?

 

[Aikouka]

Because bandwidth is something I can afford.

I used up my last freebie month with Comcast. Now, they'll start charging me for overages.

Also, I haven't looked at it, but does it allow users to monetize their streaming like Twitch?

From what I heard, no.

 

[KeithTalent]

I won't go so far as to say it is stupid, but just seems completely pointless. I'm an avid gamer yes, but I have zero desire to watch others play games. I also have zero desire to have others watch me play games (I just don't get that at all -- must be the me me me look at me fb crowd).


But the..supposedly 28 million people watched LOL finals? Just seems...wow...stupid.

One of the podcasts I listen to streams them playing a game as they review it, which works well and is pretty entertaining.

Of course I can watch people play Street Fighter for ages, so not sure what that says about me.

KT

 

[Mai72]

Is this the same as TwitchTv?

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

i think it's a way to socialize. almost like couch gaming. most online games you're at your house. other people at their house. now you have a way to make it more social. not everyone can find people locally to game with.

you also need to start thinking about ways to add extra income from these social networks. some of these streamers get donations because people have way too much disposable income, they want to support someone, etc.

you can use facebook/instagram/twitter to increase your social reach. target them with ads and sell them a product. I was just looking on teespring and it doesn't make sense to me but one of the most popular campaigns is for a ducksauce tshirt, which appears to be a twitch streamer.
http://teespring.com/twitch/duckshirts

1198 tshirts were sold. profit probably around $10 per shirt. depends on your tipping point. teespring handles the shipping. that's around 12k gross minus whatever ads were ran and whatever it cost for the logo design.

just having the twitch followers cuts down on the cost of advertising a lot. plus now you have 1.2k people running around advertising your twitch stream. they could retarget those people with google ads for some game related product or whatever they stream.

 

[robvp]

I've actually tried to stream in the past but my ISP has been pretty bad, if i try anything even at low quality it completely kills the connection for other devices

 

[cyphilis]

I was going to give it a shot today,.. but none of my friends that were online have opted for the steam beta. Both parties have to be opted in the Beta for it to work.

Does it announce that someone is watching when you are playing? Sometimes I don't want my friends to find my "good" spots on maps.. haha.

 

[DeadFred]

I won't go so far as to say it is stupid, but just seems completely pointless. I'm an avid gamer yes, but I have zero desire to watch others play games. I also have zero desire to have others watch me play games (I just don't get that at all -- must be the me me me look at me fb crowd).


But the..supposedly 28 million people watched LOL finals? Just seems...wow...stupid.

Agreed, why would I spend time watching someone else play when I could be playing. Makes no sense to me, but to each their own.

 

[tential]

Agreed, why would I spend time watching someone else play when I could be playing. Makes no sense to me, but to each their own.

Depends I thought so too. Until I tried it with Dota 2. Having played since the game was created, I found it interesting to watch top tier matches. Having played 5v5s and competitively (albeit very low level competitive play never had time), and my brother has played relatively high level LoL games, I realized I really do like watching people play. Sometimes, I may only have 30 minutes or simply be busy with something else so I can't actually play for 45+ minutes uninterupted. But I can have a game on on my phone/second screen of my PC and catch commentary and gameplay.

I've said twitch.tv was teh stupidest thing ever created until about 3 months ago when I actually started watching games.

So I understand the sentiment completely.

 

[Ichigo]

Both me and a coworker just tried it out. We had to try requesting to watch at least a couple times before it would actually let us watch without errors. The image quality isn't too bad, but the latency was absolutely horrid; there was a whopping ~10 second delay between our computers (it's easy to tell since our desks are right next to each other). We have a great internet connection so that shouldn't be an issue.

It's in beta of course though, so I imagine it will get better.

That's actually the best any service can do right now (Twitch is 30 seconds and Hitbox is about 10 seconds). Encoding and streaming live video takes time.

BTW, for some of you, you don't have to like watching streams but if you "don't understand it", that's your own personal failing.