Valve unintentionally released a new game streaming platform called Steam TV, which is set to become Twitch's rival. The launch coincides with The International, the biggest Dota 2 tournament
Steam TV might possibly be timed with the start of the famous global eSports competition that will be held on Aug. 20 until Aug. 25 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada. Due to its staggering $24.5 million prize fund, The International is considered as the largest eSports tournament across the globe.
Steam TV
Curator of the third-party website, Steam Database Pavel Djundik, first took notice of the registered Steam.tv domain. After several hours, the site has transformed from its original blank page to a webpage that simply showed a welcome message, and then a live feed of this year's The International.
Reports say that Steam TV will only be confined to Dota 2. People who want to register an account will be given access to friends list and group chats. With this, they can chat and watch a stream with their friends. However, users cannot stream their own games for other people to witness just yet.
Additionally, Valve already lets its users broadcast their video games live at the Steam community hubs for numerous games. However, the newly launched Steam.tv appears to function as a more encompassing platform.
In the website, people can discuss streams with their friends rather than joining preexisting conversations of users they do not know.
It is still unclear whether or not the company will be improving the array of Steam TV's streaming offer. However, there are already tons of competition that are presenting themselves. Google has its own YouTube gaming while Microsoft has the Mixer streaming service.
Mixer and YouTube gaming are also considered as big competitors to Twitch. The two services allow its users to stream their own game and watch other people's broadcast titles.
Steam TV Status
Currently, the Steam TV website is no longer working. A spokesperson from Valve confirmed that the site was still meant to be in its testing stage when news about it broke.
"We are working on updating Steam Broadcasting for the Main Event of The International, Dota 2's annual tournament. What people saw was a test feed that was inadvertently made public," said the spokesperson in a statement to Kotaku.
People who do not want to miss The International still have tons of way to watch the world-famous tournament. They can watch live on Stream Broadcasting, use Twitch, or look for a place that hosts Pubstomp events. Fans can also watch within the Dota game itself.
