Valve Launches Twitch-Like Service Called Steam.tv

Valve has announced Steam.tv, a new video streaming portal that will look to take on Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer and take its own piece of the continuously growing video streaming pie.

At the moment, Valve is remaining coy on the service, and that's probably because it just launched and is very obviously in a psuedo-prototype stage. In fact, at the moment, it only has options to watch Dota 2's The International. However, the option to watch other games is surely right around the corner.

The stealth-launch of the service comes after it surfaced that the company had registered the domain Steam.tv earlier in the day. For awhile, the page was blank, but now it's streaming some good ol' fashion MOBA action.

As you may know, there has long been the option to watch live broadcasts of games via the Steam Community Hub, but this has been a pretty skeleton-thin feature. However, Steam.tv seems like an expansion of this feature to offer something more akin to what Twitch or YouTube currently offer. There's built in chat integration, which features the option to avoid the dreaded stream chat by tailoring it to "friends only." Meanwhile, CNET reports that the service has some type of built-in voice chat.

However, not only does the service wear its early stage on its sleeve, but it's a little wonky at the moment and not always running properly, which perhaps explains why Valve launched it with no announcement or word from it.

More details on Steam.tv are likely imminent, but for now you can check it out yourself on its launch day and try and watch some Dota 2. One day, you can tell your grandchildren that you were there for the launch of Steam.tv. They won't know what you're talking about, but that doesn't matter.

Now, whether Steam.tv can infiltrate the video game streaming service realm with juggernauts Twitch and YouTube there, who knows. Microsoft sure has been trying with Mixer with, mixed, results. Valve surely has the resources and scale to dig out room, but it won't be easy.

At the moment of writing this, Valve has yet to officially comment on the service's launch.