NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Sony ditches Ustream support for PlayStation 4
Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC has announced that as of August 1, it will no longer support livestreaming via Ustream on its PlayStation 4 game console. In a brief notice on its website, Sony said that it will be discontinuing support for the following Ustream features (via PlayStation.com):
- Broadcasting gameplay to Ustream.
- Viewing Ustream broadcasts from “Live from PlayStation” on the PS4 system, PlayStation®App (PS App) and PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita).
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we appreciate your understanding,” the company said. Sony noted that users can still stream and watch gameplay footage using other apps like YouTube, Twitch, or Dailymotion.
So far, the company has not released any information on why exactly it is ditching Ustream support specifically, and considering the fact that Ustream has been available on PlayStation 4 for some time, it seems unlikely that the cause is a technical issue. Given that the vast majority of game streaming is done through Twitch or YouTube, it is also not clear how many PlayStation users this will affect.
Game video content has become as massive industry within the last few years, and a 2015 report from analytics firm SuperData Research Inc estimated that game video is a $3.8 billion market. While Ustream is one of the oldest and best known livestreaming platforms, it has not been particularly popular with gamers, and that same SuperData report showed that YouTube and Twitch dominate the industry, accounting for roughly 79 percent of game video revenue.
Image by by Jan Vašek (license)
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
