Facebook on Monday announced that it is getting into the eSports game, jumping into the field of video games as spectator sports against Amazon.com Inc-owned Twitch and Google’s YouTube Gaming.
Later this month, people are to be able to use Facebook accounts to log in to Blizzard Entertainment Inc computer games such as World of Warcraft.
The move is to pave the way for Blizzard game fans to use the leading social network’s Live video service to broadcast play in real time, the companies said in a joint release.
California-based Blizzard, owned by video game publisher Activision Publishing Inc, is in the process of creating a “Go Live” feature that would let players stream on-screen action to Facebook timelines, according to the companies.
Blizzard games in line for the Facebook streaming capability included freshly released Overwatch.
The collaboration is to add social features to Blizzard games, while highlighting Facebook as a platform for sharing, viewing and discussing play, the companies said.
“Our collaboration on Overwatch demonstrates Facebook’s commitment to partnering with AAA game companies, while further empowering Blizzard gamers to connect and share the content they’re most passionate about with the friends they play with around the world,” Facebook global games director Leo Olebe said.
Overwatch is a team-based shooter played online.
Facebook earlier this year ramped up its challenge to Twitter Inc-owned Periscope with upgrades to the social network’s live video broadcasting feature.
A new featured was added to the Live streaming feature at Facebook to let people broadcast to groups on the social network or in scheduled events.
Facebook Live launched in the middle of last year and was initially limited to celebrities, but recently opened to a wider audience of broadcasters.
Getting into the eSports game would pit Facebook against heavyweight rivals, including pioneering firm Twitch and popular online video sharing service YouTube, owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc.
Yahoo Esports launched about two months ago as an online venue for live tournaments, commentary, features, interviews and more tailored for the booming trend of video games as spectator sports.
The rollout of YouTube Gaming in the middle of last year marked the public debut of an online spot where video game lovers can find commentary, live play, on-demand snippets and more.
The online arena for video game channels incorporates the search smarts of Google to surface fresh or must-see content.
US online retail giant Amazon snatched up Twitch and its huge audience for live-streamed gaming in 2014.
The acquisition was one of the largest in Amazon’s history — US$970 million in cash for the three-year-old Internet company.
Twitch streams games being played for non-playing viewers to watch and hosts gaming events.
It allows viewers to chat with the players and others, lending it some of the qualities of social networking Web sites, and it also sells advertising to generate income.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to