Back in August 2016, Microsoft bought Beam — a fast-growing competitor to Twitch, the live video game streaming company that Amazon bought for $970 million in 2014.
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Microsoft reveals the secret weapon it says will topple Amazon's $970 million live gaming juggernaut (MSFT)
Microsoft says that its new Beam streaming service has better tech than Amazon's Twitch.
Beam lets viewers interact with the livestream of a game.
Twitch and others offer similar tools, Orullian notes. Some games, like "Ultimate Chicken Horse," let viewers vote on aspects of the action. But Beam's lower latency gives it an advantage, Orullian says, opening the door to more real-time, action-oriented integrations. Plus, it makes it easier for a streamer and their viewers to hold a conversation without having to account for the lag of that delay.
Finally, Orullian shows off how Beam will be built straight into Windows 10 and Xbox One. Streaming your session to Beam is just a few clicks away, with integration into both platforms' interfaces while playing a game.
And on the Xbox One, you don't even need a Beam account to get started: Click the controller's Home button, and the option is there on a revamped side menu. It'll start the broadcast to your Xbox friends, and even auto-generate a URL for you to share so anyone can tune in.
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"All of a sudden, I'm a streamer now," says Orullian.
That ease of access, plus what he sees as the platform's superior technology, will give Microsoft a real foothold in the market that Amazon's Twitch currently dominates, Orullian says. The fact that it only took them less than a year from buying Beam to getting it just about ready for gamers shows how ready Microsoft is to compete, he says.
"I think that probably speaks to how important Beam is," Orullian says.
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