Hitbox was a

live-streaming Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but ...

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional sports, professional players, individually or as ...

video game website launched in October 2013. It was a competitor to

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

. It was acquired by

Azubu Azubu was a live streaming esports website. In May 2017, it shut down and was succeeded by Smashcast. History Azubu was founded in 2012 when Lars Windhorst noticed that children were using live streaming services to watch others play video ga ...

, and then became Smashcast.

History

In November 2015

SeedInvest SeedInvest is an equity crowdfunding platform that connects startups with investors online. The company was founded in 2012 and launched in 2013. SeedInvest has focused on building liquidity in the platform by attracting high-net-worth individ ...

, along with

Wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

and North Base Media, funded Hitbox with investing $4,000,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

. CEO and co-founder Martin Klimscha was interviewed about Hitbox. He stated that their "goal at the moment is to build a superior live streaming platform", therefore taking on

. He also stated that they wanted to improve the game streaming service by reducing latency. He said that Hitbox was to be more than the "streamer and the chatbox", and would "build interactivity into this live streaming experience. Twitch's CEO Emmett Shear held an Ask me Anything (AMA) on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...

in which he mentioned that Twitch would be implementing "muting of archived streams playing music that was not licensed in previously recorded Video On Demand". He said that Twitch would be "scanning for 'ambient music' being played in the background by streamers". Hitbox hoped to capitalize on this by not being as strict on

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

. In April 2016, Hitbox signed a two-year contract with ESL gaming, Dreamhack, and Wargaming. ESL and Wargaming only exclusively partnered with Twitch in the past. "Hitbox does offer revenue-share for non-partners and their service is slightly more South-African friendly." Hitbox partnered with broadcasting company Nav-TV in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

. A third party has released an app for the company on the

Windows App Store Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform ...

. There is also an app for Android as well as IOS. Hitbox planned to offer a 60 FPS,

4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) is the domi ...

streaming service in late 2016. but this plan was canned with its merger and shutdown. Hitbox had about 6 million

monthly active users Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...

in its later months. They transitioned into using the

HTML5 video The HTML5 specification introduced the video element for the purpose of playing videos, partially replacing the object element. HTML5 video is intended by its creators to become the new standard way to show video on the web, instead of the previo ...

player instead of the

Flash Video Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There ar ...

player. In November 2016 WarGaming among other investors invested $4 million US dollars into Hitbox. On January 10, 2017, Hitbox announced through their blog that they were being acquired by

. On May 5, 2017, Hitbox shut down and their website was redirected to Smashcast, a new

Live-stream Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but n ...

service, which they claim is "spiced up with a new design & features and managed by a team consisting of Hitbox and Azubu staff".

References

{{Internet streaming services Video game websites Video game streaming services Entertainment companies established in 2013 Internet properties established in 2013 Internet properties disestablished in 2017 Mass media companies established in 2013 Software companies established in 2013