Interactive livestreaming service, Beam has been acquired for an unspecified sum by Microsoft, and will become a part of the Xbox Team. With the acquisition today, Microsoft is enhancing its streaming capabilities for the Xbox platform and also reducing its dependency on Twitch for streaming.
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Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
By owning Beam, it makes sense that the company will be able to deeply integrate the platform into Xbox Live to make it a first class citizen in the world of professional game streaming. Using “Minecraft” as one example, with Beam you don’t just watch your favorite streamer play, you play along with them.
Beam differs from Twitch in letting viewers interact with the gamers they are watching and it was crowned victor of the Battlefield competition at TechCrunch Disrupt NY earlier this year. Going forward, the Beam team plans to add new interactive game integrations, he said.
“As part of the Xbox team, we’ll be able to scale faster than we’ve ever been able to before…”
In its latest quarterly earnings report, Microsoft officials noted that Xbox console revenue is declining, but Xbox Live monthly active users are up.
Beam offers extra features to viewers – such as setting challenges for the streamer or offering multiple player perspectives across a party – and boasts “sub-second delay streaming”.
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In spite of console losses, Microsoft continues to keep its hand in gaming because games are the biggest app category in the mobile space.
