Beam is coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 'this winter'

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

Beam
Beam

Following its recent acquisition by Microsoft, interactive livestreaming company Beam announced on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt that it will launch on Xbox One and Windows 10 "this winter." A launch window for both platforms has been at the front of the minds of many minds since Beam's acquisition was announced, so this should be good news to streamers and viewers alike.

If you're unfamiliar with Beam, the livestreaming service is unique in that it allows viewers to easily interact in novel ways with whatever streamer they're watching. As an example at TechCrunch Disrupt, Beam detailed an integration with Surgeon Simulator that allowed viewers to control the game's hands while the streamer controlled the fingers.

How to stream your Xbox One on Beam

While we don't yet have a firm date for release outside of "this winter," it's good to hear that Beam will launch Windows 10 and Xbox apps so soon. If you're interested in checking Beam out ahead of time, you can head to Beam's website to view streamers or start streaming yourself.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

20 Comments
  • yeah buddy. the latency is amazing
  • I need to sign up at Beam and watch you guys play Minecraft! :).
  • You can watch without signing up ;)
  • Hope the Win10 app also comes to mobile :D
  • Yes. Good point.
  • Seems msft is proving, acquisitions are all not made so that it can be wasted in the long run.
  • Excellent. I hope it emulates all the good features of the Xbox One Twitch app, like "Xbox, broadcast" and audio chat via Kinect's microphone and video inset via Kinect's camera. I also hope they put all of their major streams on there, like the Halo Championship Series (maybe simulcast is on Twitch too, so people don't overreact). In addition to the low-latency, which blows Twitch out of the water, the interactivity features really have amazing potential to reshape how people consume and play games. I'm not sure if they should keep the Beam app exclusive to Windows 10 and Xbox One, and use this unique feature as leverage to attract people to those platforms, or if they should build a Beam app for competing consoles too and try to grow Beam as much as possible into a universal Twitch competitor.
  • Yeah I think Twitch will still be the major broadcast platform. HCS is broadcast by ESL, though (at least in Europe), and I don't see them abandoning Twitch ever. That said, I think Microsoft has some big ideas for Beam. We'll see what happens.
  • Northern or Southern Hemisphere?
  • XBOX IS WINDOWS 10
  • No mobile = no fun. There are all kinds of streaming apps for PC, but NONE for W10M! (just apps for viewing the streams). No periscope, no facebook live yet, no twitch, no livestrean, no ustream, no bambuser, no meerkat... Whyyyy ;~; and now, beam just joins the others in ignoring mobile it seems. Sad times.
  • Still, maybe there's hope in the near future as they are owned by Microsoft...
  • There's a 3rd party app for Periscope and a bunch for Twitch.
  • Easyscope Beta can't broadcast, only view others' streams. Same with twitch.
  • Do people really want to watch streams on their mobile? Mobile is alright for the odd YouTube video or possibly a TV show on the train, but streams? I'm not saying no one would watch a stream on their phone, but there can't be many.
  • All my friends that are in to CS:GO always watch the streams on their phones whenever they're away from their computer.
  • Given Beam's current focus not sure why you want to broadcast from your phone?
  • We knew it was coming but that's quick work! Good to see. Love Beam and I'm determined to use it as my main platform.
  • Windows mobile??
  • I hope they give the option for higher quality streaming than twitch the blurry network Posted via the Windows Central App for Android