Valve is competing with Twitch with Steam Broadcasting

Valve has announced a service for live streaming gameplay footage and viewing that footage. With Steam Broadcasting, the group competes with Twitch and Ustream, among others.

Steam users can see a ‘Watch Game’ option on their profile or on their client’s friends list to watch games that friends are playing live. Valve does not charge additional costs for the service and no further apps are required, Valve promises. On the community page, Valve provides an overview of current streams.

It is still a beta for the time being and players can participate by indicating this at the institutions. Friends must also participate in the test to be able to watch. Watch time may be limited during the test period, which Valve says is a result of rolling out to a wider audience.

For now, Steam Broadcasting only works in combination with the Steam Client, Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. With the service, Valve will compete with, among others, Uplay and Twitch, which is now owned by Amazon.