YouTube has announced that it will soon be possible to live-stream video direct from Android phones to its gaming platform. The reveal was made on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show, although the company did not give a specific date as to when the feature will arrive.

It was also revealed that a dedicated Japanese version of the YouTube gaming app will soon arrive for iOS and Android, making it the first country in Asia to get a region-specific release since its launch last month. "Japan's mobile games define its gaming culture, far more so than in other countries," said YouTube's global gaming head Ryan Wyatt in a statement. "This trend shows there's a real need for gamers to easily share what's on their screen with the gaming community, as it happens."

It's still unclear exactly how Android streaming will work and what resolutions will be supported. The platform's main rival, Twitch, has also experimented with ways to live-stream mobile games to its service, although it has only been available for certain titles.

Offering a Japanese version of the YouTube Gaming app may help the platform gain an upper hand over Twitch in the region, especially as the Amazon-owned service doesn't have the same kind of popularity in Asia as it does in the West.

Twitch is still the king of online game streaming - the website recently hit a record 2 million concurrent viewers - but with Android support sitting alongside other features such the ability to rewind livestreams, YouTube Gaming could start making a serious challenge to become the number one place for all game-related videos.