Microsoft said it is bolstering its Xbox arsenal with the purchase of a startup specializing in letting people join in the fun while watching live-streamed game play.
Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy Seattle-based Beam, which puts an interactive spin on the hot trend of video games being spectator sports.
"With Beam, you don't just watch your favorite streamer play, you play along with them," Xbox Live partner group program manager Chad Gibson said in a blog post.
For example, Beam can be used to let viewers assign missions, summon adversaries, or select virtual gear in games being streamed online by broadcasters.
Beam, which launched in January of this year, will become part of the team at Microsoft devoted to the technology titan's Xbox consoles.
"As part of Xbox, we'll be able to scale faster than we've ever been able to before," Beam co-founder and chief executive Matt Salsamendi said in an online post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2016, @04:08PM
First AAA-for-Asshole game studios insist on making shitty games based on movie franchises. Then moron gamers insist on live video streaming their idiocy to make gaming into a spectator sport.
It was bad enough when special snowflakes insisted on playing in teams of bots-against-humans because they couldn't tolerate any sort of friendly competition between real people.
In my day, team games didn't even exist yet, coop always degraded into a deathmatch, and gaming was a free-for-all participatory experience. Not a glorified excuse for amateur film.
Translation: "No True Scotsman would enjoy PvE, socializing with other people in the context of a game, the story a game presents without the time commitment or stress of playing it, or other game experience than the ones I personally approve of."
I suppose that you think Basketball players are dumb because Football is the Only True Sport, and that movies are stupid because if you really wanted to experience fighting you would fly to Somalia with a gun in your luggage.
Speaking for myself, as a child I used to enjoy watching others play as much as playing myself (and sometimes I'd get in arguments with siblings about who would be forced to play and who would get to just relax on the couch). I'm not surprised there is a substantial audience for such things like twitch. But maybe we're all just not True Scotsmen.