Valve is making a move into livestreaming with the launch of the Steam Broadcasting beta. The service will allow gamers to watch games their friends are playing from within the Steam client, and also to stream their gaming sessions publicly.
The integration of Steam Broadcasting into the widely-used Steam client will, in theory at least, greatly simplify the process of livestreaming games. Streamers need only select who can watch them play and whether or not they must first make a request, after which the system will handle everything automatically: Selecting "anyone can watch my games" will make the broadcast visible on the game's Steam hub, and private broadcasts will start and stop automatically during play as necessary.
