Gfinity's eSports broadcasts now offer multiple perspectives
You can watch up to five different feeds at the same time.
While Gfinity is known for its eSports stadium in London, the company is also committed to building an audience online. In addition to streaming on Twitch, the company has now launched a new GTV player in open beta. With this, you can have multiple feeds open and change each window depending on what's important to you. During a Counter-Strike tournament, for instance, I could switch between the "main stream" shown on Twitch, dedicated feeds for each team, and a few player facecams. In addition, I could change the audio between full broadcast style commentary and strictly in-game music and sound effects.
For the viewer, it's a more flexible and customisable experience than Twitch and YouTube. If you're a fan of a particular team, or want to gather tips on how they play, you can have a dedicated player feed as your main window. Or, to make it feel more like an "event," you might want to switch in a couple of facecams during a knock-out Street Fighter competition like Evo. Gfinity also offers an integrated chat window on the right-hand side, meaning you can comment on the game (or hand out some friendly smack-talk) with some like-minded fans without leaving the action.
Gfinity is gambling at the moment. The company lost £3.6 million (roughly $5.3 million) during its first full year of operations, however its revenues also climbed to £560,828 ($820,587). It's burning through cash in the hope that it can grow to a size where it's profitable. That will need to come through physical and digital ticket sales, as well as its partnerships with advertisers, sponsors and league organisers. The arena in Fulham Broadway shows promise, and its ESPN-style commentary is getting better. Along with its new Tournament Builder app for the Xbox One, the company is slowly establishing itself as a premier eSports provider.
