Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 developer Treyarch knows that scores of the franchise’s players love to record video of their multiplayer adventures and share them via Call of Duty Elite. In a sweet last-minute announcement, today Treyarch and Activision revealed a new live streaming feature in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 that will let you live stream gameplay *via YouTube* to entice more of the franchise’s million of fans to share their successes and failures to a much larger audience than Elite can offer.
Here’s how it works: gameplay videos are captured and streamed via the multiplayer League Play online mode directly to YouTube. You must have a verified YouTube account to do this, and if you do, you can even include webcam and audio commentary in the stream. Live streaming will also continue to be available via Call of Duty Elite where additional statistical and user information perks are available.
As you can imagine, Activision has placed restrictions on the live streams. Specifics of those restrictions are not yet known, but I would suspect nudity will not be tolerated. F bombs probably will, so sharpen your tongue.
Here’s the bad news: this live streaming feature via YouTube will only be available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game. PC and Wii U owners will not have access unless Activision and Treyarch decide to offer it down the road. I doubt that will happen with Wii U considering the small install base at console launch, and PC gamers can find other ways to stream their gameplay sessions not available to console players.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will arrive on Xbox 360, PS3 and the PC on November 13. The Wii U version is scheduled for November 18. Our review will not be published prior to the release date as Activision is deliberately holding back review copies until launch.
