The social media site is already used often for streaming… but now, Mark Zuckerberg tries to compete in gaming streaming.

ESL (formerly Electronic Sports League) already struck a deal with Facebook to use this website to be the „main broadcast partner” for CS: GO Pro League and ESL One Events. Facebook topped this partnership off with an announcement for an initiative called „Gaming Creator Pilot Program.”

It is aimed at game streamers, and it focuses on „helping gaming creators build more meaningful and more engaged communities on Facebook than anywhere else.” More „surfaces” (such as Instagram or Oculus) would improve the discoverability, and of course, Facebook is already working on monetizing the platform (in other words: allow viewers to send money to the streamers, and FB would take a cut of it). „There’s a lot of work to be done, but we’re committed to building the fundamental architecture that gaming creators need to be successful, starting with foundational elements like enabling all creators in the program to live stream in 1080p/60fps. Most of all, with each new feature we add for gaming video, we’re committed to building it alongside our creators hand-in-hand,” the announcement says.

ESL’s senior vice president, Ulrich Schutze said in a Reddit AMA the following: „the viewing experience on the Facebook platform is not yet where they or us want it to be … It is something everyone involved has been working on around the clock – but obviously, that is not enough at this point.”

Facebook has a bigger mainstream reach than Twitch or YouTube, so we should wait and see how the initiative will evolve over 2018…

Source: PCGamer