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Youtube launched their new gaming platform yesterday both on the web and for Android and iOS, but at the moment they are not accessible for everyone. The applications are at the moment limited to those with a UK or US IP address and the web version accessible to most users with a few surprising omissions.
The Youtube Gaming platform is the search engine’s response to the very popular game streaming platform Twitch which Amazon invested in late last year. Google was in the running to buy Twitch but lost out and it made the decision to launch a rival directly on the video platform. The idea is that it will have a huge head start as Youtube is already massively popular particular for the game playing demographics.
YouTube gaming combines real games with videos and streams of popular games, it’s worth checking out but be warned it can be a little confusing initially.
It’s all customised for gamers, even the search will look specifically at gaming resources nothing else. That is if you search for something like Doom – you’ll only get game related content not normal web results.
Unfortunately if you’re in Germany you won’t be able to access any of the site. Try to connect with a German IP address and you’ll receive the message that the content is not available in your location, currently there is no explanation of why this is. It’s very probable that it’s something to do with Google’s legal battles with GEMA the state run collecting society which is in charge of collecting royalties for music in Germany.
There is no indication of if and when this might change but German gamers would be best to invest in a proxy or VPN connection in order to access the site, something like this would work perfectly although if you need to access via a tablet then this post explaining how to watch the BBC abroad on an iPad should help – read this. Using this method would also allow people from outside the UK and US to install the official application too, although it is expected that this will be rolled out to the rest of the world soon if you can wait.