Share Your Live Gameplay Directly On Facebook With Blizzard Streaming
Recently, Facebook launched Facebook Live, a live streaming service built right into your Facebook page. This allows practically anyone to share what they are doing, live to the world, through their smartphone's camera. Facebook has now taken that service and has begun to expand it to gaming, launching Facebook Live Game Streaming through a partnership with Blizzard.
Live game streaming has been getting more and more popular over the years. It used to be that Twitch.tv was the only game in town that could generate a significant audience. Sure, there are other streaming websites, but if I can’t name them off the top of my head, not many other people can either. Now, we have YouTube Gaming, which has garnered a decent chunk of the market share over the last year, but that’s not the only heavy hitter vying for the game streamers.
Blizzard has added support for Facebook Live directly into the Blizzard game launcher. Following an update that came out on August 26, Blizzard fans will find a Stream button in the upper right corner of the launcher. When you click on it, you’ll be prompted to give the game permission to access your Facebook account. Once the app has permission to post, and your settings are configured, you can start streaming directly to your Facebook page at any time with the click of a single button.
Facebook Live Game Streaming supports all of Blizzard's game library, including Overwatch, Diablo III, and Starcraft II.
So far, there have been no announcements about other games, developers or publishers embracing Facebook Live Game Streaming, but we imagine it’s only a matter of time before others join in. Facebook Live has the potential to bring large audiences to live game streaming simply by virtue of it being where the people are, as it were. With well over a billion monthly active users, the potential to build a following is virtually limitless. Of course, it remains to be seen if and how Facebook will monetize the service to entice the professional streamers.
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
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Vaesmannaeyjar The main isue I see with it is monetization. Peopl won't stream on FB if they're not paid for the clicks they generateReply -
ironman1957 farcebook...the commie service provider that lies and edits what people post. No thanks.Reply -
clonazepam This could be huge for VR down the line and helping the masses realize how much they want to experience VR.Reply -
holyknight1121 I'm pretty sure most people would just go to Twitch instead of Facebook to watch game streamers. Especially Twitch does not require some payment just to stream or watch.Reply -
techy1966 Yea I don't think FB is really aiming this service at people that hang out on hardware review sites. This is more for the less informed that don't know what twitch is or even how to use it. FB is slow enough as is now load on 10 mil more videos...yay good thing grandma has so many nothing to do days except wait for FB to load. It's the same reason why Apple is so over sold they make devices for the less informed...lol j/k well sorta...:)Reply -
wifiburger one garbage pvp game on even more garbage service, facegarbage streaming YES please more of this game !Reply