Yesterday, November 8th, Activision Publishing, Inc. (subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc.) announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops II will release on the 13th with YouTube streaming for the consoles. This will allow players to stream League Play games, in addition to their webcam videos and audio commentary, while playing. Call of Duty Elite owners will be able to watch these streams and see the player’s information card, which contains the recent match information, loadouts, and stats across all games on Elite. These videos streams can be viewed live on YouTube normally on web browsers, mobiles phones that can view YouTube videos, and tablets, along with watching through Call of Duty Elite while online. To stream, a verified YouTube account is required. To view the Call of Duty Elite-specific information, an Elite account is required.
Mark Lamia, the studio head of Treyarch, stated “From the beginning of development with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the team has been pushing boundaries on every front to offer Call of Duty fans things that they haven’t been able to do before. With our competitive play and eSports initiatives, we wanted to deliver live streaming capabilities built right into Call of Duty: Black Ops II, because Call of Duty is not only fun and exciting to play, but we believe it will be just as exciting to watch.”
Sang Kim, the Head of Game Partnerships said “Our partners are using YouTube Live to bring entertainment, must-see moments and more to millions of people around the world. With Call of Duty: Black Ops II, people can live stream their gameplay directly from the game or watch the best players live on YouTube, which is an awesome next step for the eSports community.”
Call of Duty‘s developers are doing what they can to produce a game aimed at improving multiplayer experience. This seems to be a great move, and it massively improves the accessibility of gameplay and entertainment outside of the normal gaming experience. In doing this, many players will be able to showoff their skills and high points without having to pay for any extra equipment.
Lamia continued, “By making the capability of live streaming as accessible as possible to our fans, straight from a player’s console without the need for any additional hardware or sophisticated setups, we are empowering our fans to share their multiplayer experiences.”
