Valve launches their own Twitch competitor called Steam.TV

Valve, makers of fine products that don't end in 3, has revealed their own Twitch competitor, and it's called Steam.TV. Right now, the only game you can view as we assume it's under beta right now is competitive DOTA 2 matches (note: there's a ton of site traffic so don't be surprised if you can't connect), which makes sense considering The International, the biggest eSports event in the world, is about to begin on August 20.

steam-tv-dota2.jpg

While things are fairly basic right now - you can only watch the stream and react with other Steam users through the friends list and group chats - we're assuming people will soon be able to stream their own games through the Steam platform. If anything, at least it appears far more intuitive than the currently existing Steam Broadcasting website.

With all the competition Amazon's Twitch service has had to deal with up until this point, what with Google's YouTube Gaming and Microsoft's Mixer, why not throw in another insanely profitable company into the mix?

Update: Looks like Valve let the cat out of the bag a bit early. Speaking to Kotaku regarding Steam TV not being accessible, Valve had this to say:

“We are working on updating Steam Broadcasting for the Main Event of The International, Dota 2’s annual tournament. What people saw was a test feed that was inadvertently made public.”