Disclosure Notice: Since this is a story about mobile game streaming, it seems relevant to include some details about Carter. First off, the dude loves salty foods. Like, to the point that it’s kind of weird and vaguely concerning. I’m not entirely sure what kind of health problems consuming too much salt cause, but, it’s one of those things you always read about and, well, I don’t want my buddy to die. As is, he basically sweats salt and just has this generally salty aura about him at all times. Now, I know sweat naturally has some kind of salt content due to your natural body chemistry, but this is something else. You’ll just have to take my word for it. With those highly relevant disclosures out of the way, proceed with caution reading this article written by the notorious Carter Dotson on mobile game streaming:

YouTube’s been teasing its YouTube Gaming hub for livestreaming games, and it looks like it’s very close to launch, with the website reportedly going live on Wednesday, August 26th, with the mobile apps for iOS and Android going live as well. Now, it’s likely that this YouTube Gaming will focus on console and desktop gaming, because, well, that’s where most of the streaming games community has come in. Part of the problem too is that iOS streaming is difficult. The main way of doing it requires a decent capture card, which are not that cheap, and often has issues between the myriad adapters and software necessary to stream to the internet. Seriously, it’s a mess, and I speak from personal experience. Meanwhile, consoles and desktops can stream natively without any sort of external hardware. But there’s hope for mobile game streaming and YouTube Gaming, as Reflector 2 recently launched a livestreaming feature that allows for streaming to YouTue over AirPlay or Google Cast. The performance of Reflector 2 for recording is great – I can record 1080p at 60 FPS over AirPlay with it:

But the software has been a bit buggy at times – a previous version lost my first recording of that video above. And any solution that depends on doing things that Apple didn’t explicitly intend will have problems. Still, that gives it an interesting advantage on Mobcrush and Kamcord. Not having any cables and Windows support is a huge advantage. Kamcord requires a Mac and OBS to stream with, and Mobcrush either requires a Mac with a device hooked up via USB or a jailbroken iPad. While Mobcrush is working on a Windows client, and Kamcord certainly could be, though both of those services rely on the currently-Mac-exclusive video-via-USB functionality. So Reflector, in providing an AirPlay solution for streaming to Windows, has a leg up on those two services. Yet, in my experience in streaming mobile games across myriad networks, having an audience that cares about mobile games is paramount for streaming them successfully. Unless YouTube Gaming prioritizes that – and it’s possible that the mixing of users might be a problem.

Still, any sort of leg up on the competition is key, and YouTube Gaming having some sort of easy yet third-party streaming soltion could help it, since not everyone interested in streaming iOS games has a Mac nor a jailbroken iOS device. But even if there’s not a mobile focus, this app will be key. Twitch is definitely the leader in game streaming, but not everyone is happy with it. If YouTube Gaming can provide the audience and the technical performance for streamers, it could prove to be a major player. But we’ll see just how mobile plays on it.