Activision Blizzard and Google Give eSports a New Home
Activision Blizzard and Google have signed a deal to exclusively stream Activision Blizzard eSports games through YouTube. This means that the Overwatch League will be leaving Twitch for its next season.
Gamers can also expect the recently introduced Call of Duty League to hit YouTube, along with Hearthstone tournaments and other competitive games in the future. Under this agreement, Activision Blizzard games will also use Google Cloud for hosting infrastructure.
“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,” said the joint statement released by the companies.
The deal signed is a multi-year contract, but the exact number of years has not been made public. Activision Blizzard and Google have worked together on mobile titles in the past.
“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.
YouTube will be the exclusive streaming platform for Activision Blizzard games globally, except for China. The Overwatch League will kick off on Feb, 8. The Call of Duty League is set to begin today. 12 teams will be competing in the event, which takes place in Minnesota.
Source: PR News Wire