Facebook Goes After Twitch With Blizzard Game-Streaming Deal

Step aside, Twitch. Facebook wants in on the video game streaming action.

The social network is partnering with Blizzard to bring new social functionality to games like World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Diablo III, StarCraft II, and the gaming giant's most recent release, Overwatch. Starting later this month, you'll be able to sign up for and log into these games using your Facebook account.

This will pave the way for a new "Go Live" streaming feature, which will let you broadcast your Blizzard gaming sessions live to your Facebook timeline — just what your friends are missing from their lives. As with Facebook's existing Live videos, friends will be able to subscribe and be notified when new streams are available.

"Blizzard games are best when played with friends, so it's important to us to provide our players with features and services that make it easy and fun to share their experiences with each other," Gio Hunt, executive vice president of corporate operations at Blizzard Entertainment, said in a statement. "We're working closely with Facebook on this integration for Overwatch, as well as our other games, and we look forward to sharing further details on our plans as development progresses."

Facebook already has a major part in the gaming scene: every month, more than 650 million people play games connected to the platform.

Meanwhile, Blizzard's new online, team-based Overwatch earned an excellent rating in PCMag's review. We gave the game props for having "plenty of heroes and roles to fit different play styles" and liked its "fast-paced, balanced action."

"It's a rock-solid and highly enjoyable first-person shooter through and through," PCMag's Will Greenwald concluded.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.