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Xbox Live gets more social with Microsoft's Beam buy

The live-streaming gaming service enables real-time participation by viewers.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
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Joshua Goldman
beam-screenshot.jpg

Beam allows you to watch your favorite gamer and participate in gameplay.

 Screenshot by Josh Goldman/CNET

Microsoft is betting a Seattle-based startup can make Xbox Live more social and fun.

Beam, which launched in January, is a live-stream game service that lets viewers participate in gameplay instead of just watching and chatting.

In a post Thursday on Microsoft's official blog, Xbox Live Program Manager Chad Gibson used Minecraft as an example. He explained Beam would allow you to not only watch your favorite gamers play, but give them new challenges and make real-time choices such as tool selection that could change gameplay.

"This acquisition will help gamers enjoy the games they want, with the people they want, and on the devices they want," Gibson said.

Beam currently has more than 100,000 users.