Things are about to shake up in the video game livestreaming world. A little known tech company called Microsoft has acquired the video game livestreaming platform Beam. Beam is a relatively new livestreaming platform, bringing about new and innovative ways to deliver interactive streams. Sporting a sleek design, low video delays, and ways for viewers to directly impact gameplay, Beam has grown in popularity for new streamers aiming for something different. Microsoft is the latest behemoth to enter the video game streaming world, with Amazon owning Twitch and Google creating YouTube Gaming.

What can Beam users expect from the acquisition?

More growth, faster development, and even more innovative features for the platform. Attaching a big name like Microsoft has already garnered new interest from gamers that hadn’t heard of Beam. Beam is officially part of Team Xbox, so you can bet an Xbox One app is in the works which should allow for both streaming and viewing streams from your console. Beam’s uniqueness as a streaming platform stems from its interactivity. Viewers can impact certain streamed games and even work together to complete games such as Pokemon Emerald. The Microsoft acquisition allows for more funding toward developing these types of features as well as new potential integrations (via Xbox One and Windows), so I would expect some really interesting new games in the future.

For the full story, you can check out statements from both Microsoft and Beam.