In a move not broadcasted, announced ahead of time, or anything, Twitch Interactive has shut down the Justin.tv site that started the service seven years ago. This is speculated by many in the industry to be the first part of the acquisition of Twitch Interactive by Google/YouTube, or perhaps by another major investor.
Justin.tv was started as a single person, Justin Kan, streaming his daily activities. It quickly expanded at the start of the boom in live streaming. However, it was when Twitch.tv started and video game play was broadcast when the service grew by leaps and bounds, making it a highly desireable property.
This past year, Twitch.tv broadcast the entirity of the Electronics Entertainment Expo, having on such notable streamers as Man Vs Game. In addition, tournament play of League of Legends and DOTA 2 mean at times more than one million people are watching events being broadcast concerning video game play at a time. This has attracted Google, according to rumors, who has their own YouTube service now offering live streaming as a result.
Unfortunately, however, Justin.tv's shutdown was not announced ahead of time. This sudden divestiture of assets has broken a number of sites, not the least of which is our own Senshudo.tv due to our reliance on the Justin.tv servers API. As our crack web developer recodes our API to use resources off of the Twitch server, we hope next time Twitch does something like this, they give us a little more warning as to what the plans are, so we do not have to scramble to make a major fix with any further changes.
This editor started on Justin.tv first, and immediately fell in love with the concept of streaming. Eventually, through trials and tribulations, Senshudo.tv has grown, with the possibility of further growth going off the charts by providing content and news unbiased from one of the big six media sources in the United States. Seeing Justin.tv go is sad, but inevitable.
For those looking for a live-streaming alternative to Justin that does not focus on gaming, please check out sites such as Ustream and VaughnLive.tv.