Facebook is taking on Twitch to become the new place to stream games

A recent deal with Blizzard could see Facebook become a more accessible platform for streaming games

When it comes to livestreaming games, Twitch and YouTube Gaming are considered the big players with millions of viewers regularly tuning into one or the other. But now it appears Facebook is planning to take them on in a new partnership with Activison Blizzard.

The deal between Blizzard and Facebook will see the developer integrate the social network into some of its biggest titles such as World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Diablo III, and its latest hit Overwatch. The collaboration will start small, enabling players to sign up for and log into games using only their Facebook accounts instead of a Battle.net account.

However, what’s more interesting is that Blizzard is planning to incorporate Facebook’s Live API in order to let players “Go Live” and stream their Blizzard gameplay directly to their Facebook timelines where their friends will be able to watch, comment, and even subscribe to be notified about new streams.

This partnership will bring a whole new social dimension to Blizzard’s games but it’s also the perfect opportunity for Facebook to prove itself as a worthy competitor to the more niche Twitch and YouTube Gaming.

For anyone new to livestreaming games, Facebook could certainly be seen as the most accessible of the three platforms as streaming directly to your newsfeed without having to ask your friends to click to another site means you already have a semi-captive audience, something that's not always easy to get on Twitch and YouTube.

Aside from its immensely blockable Farmville notifications, Facebook isn’t renowned for being a hub of game-related content. However, should the partnership prove to be a positive move for Blizzard and persuade more publishers to integrate Facebook Live, we could see gaming livestreams become more common on the social network purely because it will be so much more accessible to players and viewers alike.

Though Blizzard has announced that the Facebook login integration will begin later this month, it's not set a date for the launch of Go Live, promising further details as development progresses, though it can't be too far away as Blizzard recently hosted multiple livestreams via Facebook including a launch event for Overwatch.