It’s not often that streaming software gets updated in a meaningful way. Instead, we mostly get incremental upgrades and small quality-of-life tweaks that improve the overall stability or user experience. This time, however, we have a huge update on our hands — XSplit Gamecaster V4!

XSplit set out to simplify the whole streaming process and make it as user-friendly as humanly possible. That, in and of itself, is commendable, and the fact that they actually succeeded is even more impressive.

More Accessible Than Ever

We’ve all been there. You start up OBS or a prior version of XSplit and you’re instantly overwhelmed by a plethora of different options — of which you only need one or two. You just want to start streaming and you don’t need any of the professional-grade bells and whistles. Finally, you can exactly figure out what these “Sets” and “Scenes” are supposed to do, and sooner or later the whole endeavor becomes rather taxing.

Streaming software should be like good film editing. When it’s good, you don’t notice it. When it’s bad, however, it’s immediately evident. In other words, streaming software should function as a seemingly invisible link between your game and the rest of the world and it should do its job without attracting much attention; without requiring you to study any kind of manual or online guide.

Start a game, click a button, and you’re live. That’s the goal, at least.

That’s what XSplit set out to do with their latest update, and by the looks of it they’ve done an admirable job.

First of all, the design and user interface are much more streamlined. In layman’s terms, everything is more attractive and aesthetically pleasing. In fact, it resembles Discord and its design language, which is definitely a huge plus. Not only will it make for an easier (and more intuitive) learning curve, but new users won’t have to wander around and experiment if they’re well-versed in similar software.

The in-game stream control (along with other key controls) is still present, so you can start or stop streaming while in-game, interact with your viewers and even check out recent events and statistics.

Perhaps the biggest and most surprising addition to XSplit Gamecaster V4 is the staggering number of free stream templates that are at your disposal. They’re all stored online, and you can adapt them to your liking!

You don’t need to know your way around Photoshop or any similar graphic-oriented software. Just pick the template you like the most, add a couple of images, change any textual segment you want and you’re good to go! There are also genre-specific themes available as well, so you can match the “visual identity” of your stream in conjunction with the game you’re playing. Not the biggest change in the world, but a welcome one nonetheless.

The program still comes with a fairly solid “one-click setup” option, which is great if you don’t want to invest any time into fine-tuning your settings.

XSplit Gamecaster V4 also supports broadcasting to Facebook, Mixer, Twitch as well as YouTube, so there’s something for everyone. You’ll enjoy the same intuitive interface regardless of the platform you opt to stream on.

And it’s still free, so that’s always a bonus!

If you’re interested in the many new additions XSplit Gamecaster V4 brings to the table, you can click here to go to their official website!