Game On! YouTube unveiling opportunity for Regina gamers
The image of video game players spending the day in their parents' basement is not only outdated, it's no longer accurate.
Gamers are gaining traction as stars in the world of competitive video gaming, better known as eSports. Many have their own channels on sites like YouTube and Twitch, which have millions of subscribers.
Regina's Derek Silversides and Ryan Shemanski have developed their own YouTube channel, where they post reviews of video games and record their gameplay.
The pair hope their channel, "Spare Pixel", will garner online success.
"YouTube is just the same as TV," said Silversides, who started the channel with Shemanski six months ago.
"People go watch their favourite channel on TV and then go watch their favourite channel on YouTube."
VIDEO:Regina gamers launch YouTube channel
It is not always easy for gamers to find like-minded fans or personalities. With billions of videos on YouTube, Silversides described the uphill fight as "competing [against] cuddly little cat videos. And you can't compete against cuddly little cat videos."
YouTube Gaming launches
At E3, the world's largest electronic games convention, YouTube announced a big investment in the world of online gaming and in the business of web streaming.
This summer, it will launch YouTube Gaming, a separate website geared specifically towards gamers. It will allow players to easily upload videos and create web streams of game play.
It is believed the move by the Google-owned video site is in direct competition to Amazon purchasing Twitch, a game-centric streaming site, last year.
Matt Demers, a journalist covering eSports for theScore said this will encourage better services for both sides.
"[YouTube Gaming and Twitch] are in competition with one another but the viewer and the streaming are hopefully going to win out big from this," Demers said.
The video games industry's revenue is now on par with the movie industry.
In 2014, gaming generated $91.5 billion, up 9.4 per cent since 2014. The industry is projected to hit $107 billion in profits by 2017.
