One of the leading software companies in the game livestreaming sector is combining a number of its tools into one service with the goal of helping broadcasters.
SplitmediaLabs, which operates the Xsplit game-broadcasting app, is updating its Player.me platform to incorporate a number of features to enable streamers to create live video and to manage their online presence across most major broadcasting sites. Player.me connects to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Hitbox, and Beam, and you can start a livestream with one click. But the app also empowers you to create your own professional-looking overlays that you can tie into your Xsplit or OBS broadcasters if you choose. SplitmediaLabs also wants broadcasters to use the app’s built-in community-management tools to help individual broadcasters reach out to their audiences.
SplitmediaLabs acquired Player.me in July, and it has worked since then to prepare the desktop app for its launch into beta. You can register to test the app on its website.
“We’re building something that tries to enable content creators to get up and running quickly and easily, that makes their content look as good as possible, and ultimately helps them get discovered,” Player.me cofounder and chief product officer Sean Fee told GamesBeat.
Player works by connecting with your other gaming-related accounts. It can hook into Steam, Discord, Facebook, Twitter, Xbox Live, and more, and it can see what games you play and what you’re interested in, and it can help guide you to other players or one of Player’s 50,000 game pages that you are potentially interested in. That basic functionality is still available, but now it also links into other types of actions.
“Players can add videos, screenshots, or reviews to the game pages,” said Fee. “Players can add as much content as they like to those game pages, and then other people might discover them through the game.”
The new Player.me also expands the browsing feature for livestreams and recorded video. That content used to end up in the unified feed, but now they will exist in their own tabs where players can specifically search out who is broadcasting certain games or which of their friends uploaded a video.
“There’s also a cool new feature that’s a roll of the dice where you press a button and random stream kicks up for you to check out,” said Fee. “If you’re not interested, you can kick up another one.”
For SplitmedaLabs, this is a culmination of months of work, and the beta test will help Fee and his team find out if they’re heading in the right direction when it comes to providing an all-encompassing app that can help a streamer create live video, share them, and connect with viewers.
“We were in a unique position where we had all the individual elements, so it was a matter of putting them all together,” said Fee. “The technology behind the product was all aligned, so it wasn’t difficult technologically because we had all the pieces. But in terms of figuring out how they fit together and the UI and the experience is really tough.”
At the same time, Fee recognizes that you can’t lock people into your one-click solution. That’s why Player.me enables you to create scenes that you can use with OBS, the free, open-source competitor to SplitmediaLabs Xsplit software.
“With our experience, we know that [locking people into a one-click platform] is not the solution,” said Fee. “It’s way too simple. It’ll appeal to people for their first five streams and then they’ll want more customization.”
And that was the final challenge of updating Player.me with its new features: Designing it in a way so that you can come to it as a beginner and then grow alongside its features without getting overwhelmed. The beta will test if the app can accomplish that or if most people will still bounce off after a few streams.
