stream spectator data as broadcast for games

#1

Am I missing some obvious downside or exploitability? This would be awesome. Imagine controlling the camera as you watch games in spectator mode following your favorite player or getting the best overhead view of the whole battle. No need to worry about encoding quality balancing resolution and fps. No more braodcasters switching views on you even though you know they should have stayed on that dps who was about to make a play. Want to really analyze an engage so you know how every angle played out? Viewers having control of their own spectator mode would be amazing.

Still I think it wont happen. You still want a video broadcast for people watching on tv and phones or who want the camera controlled for them while they relax. Splitting up the broadcast format could be seen as diminishing the value of each half and I think that the OWL owners will have a soft spot for traditional broadcast techniques along with how lame it would be to have ads injected into the in game spectator mode.

But if they did it, for many it would bring watching overwatch competitions to a whole new level.

#2

Generation1

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Think about the drain on the servers if 50k+ people are attached to it though.

#4

ideekae

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I mean people have been watching CSGO majors on GOTV for ages.

Blizzard just needs a system like that. Adding some potential loot box drops (like souvenir drops) would add a whole new incentive to watching competitive Overwatch. This is actually a great idea that should be implemented into the game so the scene can grow to a whole new level. However, we haven't even gotten demos/replays for more than 12 seconds yet, so until we get that, we still have a while to wait.

If you imagine, since loot boxes cannot inflate the marketplace like CS cases can (since Blizzard is the only dealer), dispensing boxes for viewership is the best way to grow the audience. It's almost like this game was made for this function, yet we haven't gotten anything close to this. There's no way OW can get viewership into the 6th digit (much less the 7th) if there's no better way to announce matches than the BNet home screen.

Anyways, great idea OP.

#3

penda

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Eleague did something like that once on their website for a csgo event but you can imagine not every tournament could do this

#5

robokun87

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Hasn't this been around in other games for about a decade? if they could do it back then makes me wonder why they can't now, you can't even record demos in OW yet you could do that for games 15 years old so what's the excuse? not everyone can watch a match live and watching a VOD isn't the best since you can't watch who you want so these are two things OW could do with especially if they plan on making the OWL huge, how can it be huge when all we have to rely on are VODS?

The reason CS majors get hundreds of thousand views is they have an incentive to watch aka loot boxes, will that do the same for OW? doubt it since you can sell whatever you get in CS but can't in OW so I doubt it would make too big a difference but still, a free loot box is better than nothing eh.

Kinda surprised Blizzard want to take OW e-sports to the next level with a game lacking any demo function or spectating abilities other than streams and VODS, doesn't quite make sense.

#6

Involv3r

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Add to that watching VODs on the Twitch player is aids sometimes, hopefully it gets upgraded soon.