Over the past few years, live-streaming has become a huge part of the video game industry. The success of services like Twitch and YouTube Gaming have kickstarted a new era of online interactivity — it's not just about watching someone play video games anymore, but playing along and interacting with them live.
Then again, as with any new service, there are bound to be some casualties. There just isn't room for more than a few different brands, and most would say that YouTube Gaming and Twitch have all the major bases covered. True, there are a few specialized platforms, but they're nowhere near as successful.
One service that fell by the wayside was Ustream: while the service was one of the initial frontrunners, the ease of use granted by Twitch eventually left Ustream without much of a user base. The introduction of YouTube Gaming, which built off of an already-successful platform, certainly didn't help — these days, Ustream is known more for NSFW broadcasts than anything else.
All things considered, it's not all that surprising that Sony is officially dropping all Ustream support later this summer. Players will still be able to live-stream from their consoles at no extra charge, but as far as Ustream goes, Sony is cutting the cord.
As of this writing, Sony has yet to give an official reason for why Ustream won't be supported after the console's August update. There doesn't seem to be any sort of bad blood between the companies, and any sort of legal situation would have likely made more noise.
Instead, the split is likely due to something far simpler: player engagement. If people aren't using Ustream (and they aren't), it doesn't make sense for Sony to pay for any sort of licensing agreement. At the end of the day, it's easy to assume that Ustream is getting dropped from the PlayStation 4 simply because Sony doesn't feel like paying for something that no one's using.
If you're worried about the future of streaming on the PS4 in general, don't be: Sony has stated that all of the other available services (including YouTube Gaming, Twitch and Dailymotion) should continue to function normally. Really, the only change that players will notice is that there's one less icon waiting for them on the Share screen.
Users should get their last few broadcasts in before the service is off Sony's machine for good: Ustream is set to leave the PlayStation 4 on Aug. 1.
