It is good news for Google, as YouTube gets to secure the exclusive rights for broadcasting the most prominent esports leagues. This is an excellent beginning for Google as a company for stepping in the profitable online market of video games.
Getting into the online gaming world is getting into a new frontier altogether for Google. Google also pioneered in launching a game streaming service named ‘Stadia’ last year, which could be played through the Internet without the need of a high-powered computer or a console.
The contract was signed between video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. & Alphabet Inc’s Google giving YouTube the exclusive right to broadcast the already talked about ‘Overwatch League’, which aired for the past two years on an estimated cost of $90 million on Amazon.com Inc’s Twitch & also the new Call of Duty League.However, the multiyear deal’s financial terms have not yet been discussed, but Google, as part of the agreement, will be offering cloud infrastructure for Activision’s online games.
Also, this can prove to be fierce competition for Amazon as it has not yet announced any competitor to Stadia & cannot rely on its in-house gaming studio.
Talking on Amazon & the competition it may face, Joost van Dreunen, managing director of Nielsen’s video-game research arm said, “The longer Amazon remains on the sidelines of technological shifts in the games business, the harder it will be to capture share down the line.”
Further talking about Google getting into the gaming frontier, he said, “In 2020 Google is going all out to claim a piece of the $120 billion games market. Google is off to a great start to building strong relationships with content creators which it will need to differentiate as it tries to penetrate the industry via different avenues.”
The deal offers great encouragement to the central thesis of Activision’s esports efforts. Since esports is equivalent to traditional sports leagues like the National Football League or the National Basketball Association, publishers are casting investors on the Call of Duty League & the Overwatch League, launching later this month. These sports league also mint money by selling media rights to companies like YouTube.
Google also gets a significant boost by providing cloud infrastructure Activision’s online games, pushing Microsoft Corp. & Amazon in the same market.
