Activision Blizzard And Google Start Partnership - Esports Events Now On Youtube
According to a press release from this afternoon Activision-Blizzard and Google are going to work together in two areas: Google Cloud will serve as the preferred cloud service for the game hosting infrastructure and Youtube as its exclusive streaming partner worldwide (excluding China) for live broadcasts of its esports leagues and events, including Hearthstone, but also Overwatch League and Call of Duty League!
This will mean that the tournaments and events that the Hearthstone team regularly hosts on Twitch will move to Youtube. We have reached out to Blizzard to ask when this new partnership will go into effect and which tournaments and events will be affected by this change and we will update this article when we hear back.
This article previously stated that the Masters Tour stop in Arlington would most likely be broadcast on Twitch still but According to Frodan on Twitter, next week's Tournament in Arlington WILL be broadcast on Youtube and not Twitch. This means we can probably expect an announcement of the changes very soon, as the tournament starts in 6 days!
UPDATE: Blizzard CM Chris Sierra reached out to us and told us "(the change) was effective immediately, meaning that the Masters Tour Arlington will be moving to YouTube!" So confirmation from official sources now that this weekend's tournament will be shown on YouTube and not Twitch.
Below you will find the official press release statement:
Quote from blizzardSANTA MONICA, Calif. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Activision Blizzard and Google announced today a multi-year strategic relationship to power new player experiences. Google Cloud will serve as the preferred provider for Activision Blizzard's game hosting infrastructure and YouTube as its exclusive streaming partner worldwide, excluding China, for live broadcasts of its popular esports leagues and events — including Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, Hearthstone Esports, and more.
With hundreds of millions of monthly active users around the world, Activision Blizzard sought a partner to help enhance its gaming infrastructure, as well as deliver superior, low-latency player experiences. The company turned to Google Cloud because of its highly reliable global footprint, advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, and commitment to open source, creating a platform for building future gaming innovations.
Players will benefit by experiencing premium network quality-of-service, including low latency and packet loss when playing high-fidelity games on any device. They will also have optimal personalized interactions, as Activision Blizzard can tap into Google Cloud's AI tools to offer curated recommendations for in-game offers and differentiated gaming experiences.
"We've worked closely with Activision Blizzard for the past few years across mobile titles to boost its analytics capabilities and overall player experience," said Sunil Rayan, Head of Gaming, Google Cloud. "We are excited to now expand our relationship and help power one of the largest and most renowned game developers in the world."
"We're excited to partner with Google to drive the next generation of gaming innovation for the industry. Google Cloud's best-in-class infrastructure gives us the confidence to deliver great entertainment to our fans around the world," said Jacques Erasmus, Chief Information Officer, Activision Blizzard.
Additionally, beginning this week, YouTube will host the official live broadcasts of Activision Blizzard's popular esports leagues and events including the newly created Call of Duty League, Overwatch League, Hearthstone Esports, and more. The inaugural Call of Duty League season kicks off on Friday, January 24, with 12 teams competing in Minnesota, and the Overwatch League's 2020 season will follow on February 8. All competitions will be livestreamed on each league's YouTube channel and will include archived and other special content.
"With more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year, YouTube provides gamers and their passionate fans with the most popular video gaming platform in the world," said Ryan Wyatt, Head of Gaming, YouTube. "Both the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League are the quintessential examples of world class esports content. As a former Call of Duty esports commentator myself, I couldn't be more excited for Activision Blizzard to choose YouTube as its exclusive home for the digital live streaming of both leagues. This partnership further demonstrates our dedication to having a world class live streaming product for gaming."
"This is an exciting year for Activision Blizzard Esports as we head into the inaugural season of Call of Duty League and our first ever season of homestands for Overwatch League all around the world," said Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports. "It's our mission to deliver high-quality competitive entertainment that our fans can follow globally, live or on-demand, and to celebrate our players as the superstars that they are. This partnership will help us deliver on that promise at new levels, by combining our passionate communities of fans and players with YouTube's powerful content platform and exciting history of supporting next-generation entertainment."
This collaboration with Activision Blizzard represents Google's ongoing commitment to supporting game developer success around the globe. Across its business units, Google offers comprehensive solutions for game developers, empowering them to create great games, connect with players, and scale their businesses.
nice i love watching stuff on youtube
What a time to get in bed with Google and YouTube. The China shit is bad enough.
Is it better to collaborate with Twich and Amazon? Each multi-million dollar corporation looks the same to me.
I didn't say it was..?
The point is they are trading one for the other just because Google wouldn't let them use the Cloud otherwise. They let themselves get bullied into submission in a move than affects the viewers, again.
I hate using youtube for watching live events, so i might just lose interest altogether..
No more drops :(
I thought so too but you can link your Blizzard account to your Google+ account and there has been drops for Fortnite recently so hopefully we'll still get them for watching on Youtube.
If thats the case i litterly dont care where they stream it
But the emotes on twitch are so much better PepeHands
Poor business decision imo. Impressions will falter on YouTube.
I'm guessing they are banking on the fact that their games will attract their following to YouTube and that it doesn't matter where they broadcast their stuff, as long as the quality is good and as long as they properly advertize on which channels the broadcasts will be.