Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC has announced that as of August 1, it will no longer support livestreaming via Ustream on its PlayStation 4 game console. In a brief notice on its website, Sony said that it will be discontinuing support for the following Ustream features (via PlayStation.com):

• Broadcasting gameplay to Ustream.
• Viewing Ustream broadcasts from “Live from PlayStation” on the PS4 system, PlayStation®App (PS App) and PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita).

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we appreciate your understanding,” the company said. Sony noted that users can still stream and watch gameplay footage using other apps like YouTube, Twitch, or Dailymotion.

So far, the company has not released any information on why exactly it is ditching Ustream support specifically, and considering the fact that Ustream has been available on PlayStation 4 for some time, it seems unlikely that the cause is a technical issue. Given that the vast majority of game streaming is done through Twitch or YouTube, it is also not clear how many PlayStation users this will affect.

Game video content has become as massive industry within the last few years, and a 2015 report from analytics firm SuperData Research Inc estimated that game video is a $3.8 billion market. While Ustream is one of the oldest and best known livestreaming platforms, it has not been particularly popular with gamers, and that same SuperData report showed that YouTube and Twitch dominate the industry, accounting for roughly 79 percent of game video revenue.

Image by by Jan Vašek (license)