Should you get it? - Razer Comms Stream Viewer

Disclaimer: Razer is a sponsor of Team Liquid, but this review was written with roughly a full week’s worth of usage and testing.

Oh no—not another streaming service! Nope, it’s not another streaming service, but rather a complimentary program to make finding streams and viewing them with your friends a tad bit easier.

Razer Comms Stream Viewer acts as a separate program and connects all sorts of services like Twitch, Azubu, and Hitbox together. Essentially, instead of going to each website individually, you can keep track of all three websites (and more soon to come), within one central hub—it’s pretty handy, actually. I’ve needed to keep track of many different games lately, and Razer’s Stream Viewer made bouncing from stream to stream easier, and I’ll get to explaining why.

When you download and launch RCSV (Maybe I’ll come up with a better acronym one day), you’ll be treated to a rather easy-to-use HUD. It really is as straight-forward as Featured, All Games, Events, and Following. From there’s it’s basically Twitch 2.0, as the games are laid out in front of you. For all of you complaining why other websites don’t just use Twitch’s layout—well, here you go.





Once you’ve mastered the layout, which should take about a glance and a half, you’ll probably want to learn a bit about the additional features Razer has come out with. One of those features, and probably my favorite among them, was the friend-share function where I could invite my friends to watch the streams with me—voice chat and all. But it’s not just with friends that made it cool; using it with random viewers was my highlight. Actual communication over the internet? Who would want that? Really, it’s cooler than it seems, and getting a little social with gamers that hold common interest isn’t a bad thing from time to time.

But aside from core features, there are some nifty side features that would appeal to casual stream viewers and enthusiast ones alike. The notifications are cool when you want to know what streams your friends are tuned into—but also since the Stream Viewer ties different stream services together, it’s nifty to get notifications for everything under one place rather than having to receive an email for every little notification.

Then there’s the Tournament Tracker. Don’t even get me started on this godsend of a feature. Do you know how hard it is to keep track of every single tournament? It’s like trying to do a handstand on a unicycle while juggling rubber ducks (don’t try that). But no, Razer’s tournament tracker makes it incredibly easy for me to tune in to various events, even ones for games I don’t entirely pay attention to. It’s just nice to click on. And push notifications for when matches start? I'm practically drooling at this point.

So, should you get it?

The Stream Viewer is a nifty program for enthusiasts. Casual stream viewers, or those who only visit their favorite streams once every few days, won’t find much use with the program as the additional features don’t entirely enhance the viewer experience alone. But for those who live on their favorite stream service, it’s worth downloading and trying—having everything inside one central hub is the selling point and it’s a damn good one. I feel eventually, most gamers will adopt complimentary programs like this, so why not start with Razer Comm’s Stream Viewer? It's free after all.