Valve Officially Launches Their New Game Streaming Platform, Steam TV

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We previously reported on Valve prematurely launching their new take on gameplay streaming, Steam TV. Now, the company has officially launched the service, just in time for their DoTA 2 tournament.


Now, if you browse to Steam.tv, you’ll be greeted with a livestream of the company’s annual DoTA 2 tournament, The International. Clearly, the new platform is a bid at making their own Twitch competitor.

As the interface is connected to Steam proper, it has Steam Chat functionality, tabbed chat windows, and the option to invite friends to watch streams together. There also appeared to be in-browser voice chat support.

Valve has long since enabled users to stream their games through the main Steam client, however this was only available via the app and users connected to your Steam account. This is obviously a bold step into positioning Steam into a direct competitor to Twitch.

It seems like allowing users to watch pro DoTA 2 streams isn’t where Valve intends on stopping the Steam.tv client. “This Dota 2 centered update to Steam Broadcasting currently includes some custom elements to support The International,” Valve said in a blog post. “After the tournament we plan to extend Watch Party support for all games that are broadcasting on Steam and expose a new broadcast Steamworks API to Steam partners.”

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