Main TwitchTV rival officially announces that it will cease operations.

Following complaints from disgruntled partners and recent rumblings of its impending demise, popular gaming livestream service own3D.tv has today announced that they will cease operations today, January 31, 2013. 

own3D was the home of the League of Legends livestream community and a fierce rival of TwitchTV, but took a dive in popularity in 2012 after the majority of popular partners left the service in favour of TwitchTV. Although many left without stating their reasons it has since surfaced that many of those partners were owed as much as six months of payment. 

The official statement follows:

“Dear gamers, dear own3D community,

own3D and its management, having evaluated the future of own3D, have decided to cease operations on January 31st, 2013.

As the first livestreaming portal for gamers own3D had a turbulent start with unexpected growth. We have tried to drive the company into profitability but due to the capital intensive nature of our industry and increasing competition, we have not been able to reach it despite our best efforts.

This is a difficult decision for all of us at own3D. However, after much deliberation this seems to be the best course of action despite the impact it will have on all the employees, clients and partners who helped build this business.

We are grateful for your support as our pioneering ride comes to an end. The own3D team has always aspired to provide the gaming community with the best tools for sharing their gaming experiences and growing their projects. We therefore hope that you have enjoyed watching a few epics over the years.

The day has almost arrived when professional gamers are as recognized as other athletes. We hope to have shown what is possible for the future of eSport and competitive gaming.

The gaming revolution will not be televised - it will be streamed.

Your own3D team.

Note: Business partners will be contacted directly regarding proceedings.“

In a live interview on eSports show Live On Three following the announcement, own3D COO Oleg Kogut said the website will be down within the next 24 hours and with it all videos currently hosted on the service. When asked if there will be backups he said they will look for a solution. 

With Own3D out of the picture, there have been expressed concerns in the community that TwitchTV will have a monopoly. While it would be hard to disagree with that sentiment there are competitors. 

The YouTube Live service does exist, but there are problems with its policies and in general it lacks support. Gaming Media Company Azubu, who have a significant stake in the eSports community, have also announced their own service AzubuTV, which will be coming soon. Daily Motion run a live service which is popular in France and are said to be investing into their gaming community. There are also others from the Asian market interested in entering the Western market. 

You can read the announcement on the own3D blog.

Chris Rainey, Columnist