Microsoft acquired the game-streaming service for an undisclosed amount.
Launched in January, Beam, the interactive game streaming service that won the Startup Battlefield contest in May, has been acquired by Microsoft. It almost seems as if August is the month for big moves in the game streaming industry.
Amazon bought Twitch.tv for a jaw-dropping $970m deal in August 2014. Google's video platform YouTube then launched its dedicated game streaming channel, Youtube Gaming, in August 2015. And August 2016 now sees Microsoft acquire Beam, a game streaming company with a twist, for an undisclosed sum. The twist is that audiences on Beam can directly influence how games play out.
Viewers can use customizable on-screen buttons to indicate how they want each streaming session to play out.
It's a feature that bears comparison with the "Twitch Plays" phenomenon of recent years, which started in February 2014 when a programmer turnd Twitch's viewer text chat into a crowdsourced controller for Nintendo classic "Pokémon Red."
That and other features depended on programming tricks that turned these single-player games into chaotic experiences controlled by crowds of invested audience members.
But with Beam, such functionality is built in from the start. Not only streamers but also developers can customize Beam's on-screen buttons to let viewers in on the action. "That interactivity is easy for streamers to enable and customize, and is designed to work with any game,"explained Xbox Live's Chad Gibson in a Microsoft blog post.
"You can give [streamers] new challenges and make real-time choices that affect their gameplay, from tool selection to quests to movement; all through simple visual controls."
Perhaps more importantly, Microsoft now has its own rising star in the game streaming world -- Beam's instant interactivity is possible thanks to super low-latency technology; the service launched in January 2016 and accumulated over 100,000 members in a few months.
Beam CEO Matt Salsamendi outlined immediate plans in his own announcement on beam.pro. "We're continuing our focus on providing streamers with the tools they need to create the most interactive broadcasts around. Beam is designed to work with any game, and we'll continue to offer broadcasts across all gaming platforms, just as we do today."
"As Beam becomes part of Team Xbox, you'll see awesome new features, epic new interactive game integrations, and a huge influx of new community members!"
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