In-case you hadn't heard, the last few days have been swimming with rumours that the world's most prominent gaming streaming site, Twitch.tv, was being courted by the likes of Google for a buyout. Now those digital chickens have come home to roost, as it turns out a deal looks very likely to be struck to the tune of a billion dollars, making the Twitch owners very happy as newly minted multi-millionaires and many of the site's fans, disgruntled.
That's a lot of money for anything, even for a company with 40 million regular viewers and a million or so streamers, but consider that Twitch has become linked with both new-gen consoles, as well as major esports and it clearly has a bright future ahead of it. On top of that, Google owns Youtube, of which it's biggest channels are also streamers and let's players like Pewdiepie and merging the two services would be a good fit.
Of course though, this is likely to leave a sour taste in Twitch streamers mouths, since Google and Youtube have recently been complete asses when it comes to dealing with video game stream revenue. Thanks to its automatic acceptance of Content ID claims, big Youtubers have been hit repeatedly with phony claims, which meant they lost revenue for several weeks while going through the arbitration process.
If this sort of system were implemented on Twitch, it could mean a lot of people jump ship to competitive services.
However don't leave just yet to cancel your Twitch account, as the deal may not go through. The WallStreetJournal is reporting that it's far from a done deal and lawyers and owners on each end are still hashing it out. On top of that, the Justice Department is expected to give any signed deal a once over to make sure that it isn't anti-competitive. Considering Youtube and Twitch are both leaders in their respective streaming fields, a merger of the two businesses could make it impossible for others to compete.
