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Twitchy Google GAMES YouTube – hits 'play' on MULTI-BEELLION dollar market

As in gaming for gamers, in case you wondered

Google is set to muscle in on the multi-billion dollar online gaming market, with the launch of a dedicated YouTube app and website.

The ad giant, which failed in its bid to buy Twitch for $1bn last year, said in a blog post on Friday that the new service was coming to the US and UK this summer.

Twitch was instead snapped up by web rival Amazon. Meanwhile, Facebook scooped up Rift head gear maker Oculus for $2bn in 2014. So it's hardly surprising to see Google moving into the video gaming market.

Google appeared to have inked beefy deals with game publishers by crowing that "more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams".

Titles include Zelda, Call of Duty and Asteroids, Mountain View added.

Google promised gamers that live streams would be "front-and-centre" on the new YouTube site.

And techie tweaks are incoming too, in a clear move to keep gamers glued to Google's online estate. The Choc Factory's product manager Alan Joyce said:

On top of existing features like high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR, and automatically converting your stream into a YouTube video, we’re redesigning our system so that you no longer need to schedule a live event ahead of time. We’re also creating [a] single link you can share for all your streams.

Google's gaming website is currently displaying a "join in and level up" teaser. You lucky people. ®

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