There's been rumours about it for a while now and speculation in a will they, won't they manner, but it finally seems to be confirmed that Google is buying Twitch, with plans to roll it into Youtube in some manner, since the division responsible for the streaming site is the driver of the acquisition.
This makes sense of course, since Youtube and Twitch's audiences are somewhat similar, if a little divided on genre lines. However, the most viewed channels on Youtube these days are gaming related, with the likes of PewDiePie closing in on 30 million subscribers.
Unfortunately, while Venturebeat seems quite certain of the outcome of this deal between the two streaming powerhouses, the details remain thin on the ground. The rumoured amount set to change hands is a billion dollars, but there's no word on the exact price, which will likely involve stock and cash in a package deal.
However, if a billion is close to the final amount, investors will no doubt be happy, since their investment is set to be returned many times over. It's also a boon to those involved in the Esports arena like Riot Games, Valve and Blizzard, since it cements the interest of the business as well as gaming world on Esports and secures the funding required to push Twitch and live-streaming games forward in the future.
Of course the fact that Valve's DotA 2 International just had a $10 million+ prize pool, should have told us that anyway.
