Microsoft Originally Planned to Purchase Gaming Streaming Service ’Twitch’

If you have been pay attention to the news recently then you will have probably come across the story that Google are planning to put in a massive offer to the gaming streaming service ‘Twitch’; more on that soon though. For now, I want to discuss something else that has ‘come out’ about this service recently.

Before the bid from Google, it is believed that Twitch received a number of other offers from a multitude of different companies. One of the biggest is believed to have come from Microsoft. As you may know, Twitch has started to become incorporated in a number of different games consoles for easy streaming of play. The scope of this site meant that it would have been the perfect acquisition for Microsoft. After all, they could have really used it to PUSH their idea of a complete entertainment system. I am sure it would have made them a considerable amount of money too. There is no word on when the offer was made to Twitch. I also have absolutely no idea on the amount of cash that was offered. I am sure it was a rather princely sum though.

The news that has been catching everybody’s eye as of late is the report that Google are looking to purchase the Twitch streaming service. It is believed that the conversations regarding the sale are in the earliest possible stages. Various numbers relating to the bid seem to be floating around at the moment. One which seems to be perfectly plausible is a bid of roughly $1 billion for the service. This would most likely be a split between cash and shares in Google (which would be worth a fortune!)

There have been some reports that indicate that Twitch actually received higher bids than what Google put forth. However, they seem to be attracted to this offer due to Google owning the YouTube service. This means that they already know how to deal with video on this type of scale. Remember, YouTube has recently introduced a streaming service for live events on its site to selected partners (although I do believe that the system is opening up even more recently). If the bid for Twitch goes through then I expect it to be integrated with YouTube somehow.

So, what would this mean for Twitch Streamers? Well, if Google manage to get their way then it is likely that Google AdSense would be incorporated into streams somehow. After all, this is how Google earns the bulk of its revenue. If Twitch goes down the same route as YouTube, and I have no reason to believe it won’t, then the revenue generated from the display of adverts would be split between Google and the streamer. This means it could end up being a perfectly viable way to make money, providing you have a decent stream of course. A revenue split like this would likely see more and more people join the platform.