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A new beta of Microsoft’s Beam game-streaming service now live for Pro users

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microsofts beam game streaming service updated pro subscribers beta interface
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Matt Salsamendi from the Beam game-streaming service posted a blog on Tuesday stating that “Pro” users can now test a new version that was built from the ground up for scalability. To compete with Twitch, in August Microsoft acquired Beam, which moves away from Twitch’s watch-and-chat setup by enabling users to directly interact with game streamers and even play along. The goal of the Beam acquisition is to provide native live-streaming to Windows and Xbox-based gamers.

The new beta enables users to log into the Beam service via Xbox Live, adding to the current Twitter and Discord options. Eventually, this will be the only way users can log in because Microsoft wants a “universal and easy-to-use” authentication mechanism. This method also promises deeper social experiences, game integrations, and security enhancements. It also merges Beam into Microsoft’s overall Windows/Xbox gaming community.

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“We’ll be adopting a Twitter-style username system where, while your username is your unique gamertag, you can specify a custom channel display name that viewers see when going to your channel (e.g. My gamertag is Salsa, but my channel name could be MattDoesGaming),” Salsamendi explains. “It’s likely we’ll adopt a verification system shortly after launch, too, so you know that I’m the real MattDoesGaming, of course.”

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In addition to the Xbox Live login feature, the team has improved Beam’s overall performance. According to the blog, the site now loads five times faster than before, and is better optimized for browsers on mobile devices. That means the team is retiring the spinner that hovered on screens like a hurricane when loading content. The site renders faster, too at up to 60 frames per second, Salsamendi says.

But that’s not all. With the performance upgrade comes a new home page sporting more content than before. The revamped interface now provides more screen space for broadcasters, the ability to feature mature streams to users aged 18 and older, and means for scheduling and featuring multiple broadcasters and events. The experience is now more consistent across the site too, sporting “kinetic” animations for interactions and transitions.

Another feature added to the beta is an increased bitrate and improved resolution. The team raised the maximum bitrate to 10 megabits per second, and Beam now supports 1,440p streams running at 60 frames per second. Super high motion 1080p streaming “looks awesome,” Salsamendi adds..

Other additions and improvements made to the Beam service in the new beta include “deep” improvements to the chat system, and a new video player based on HTML5 (bye-bye Flash). The team has also created a new Beam logo that resembles a blue/white life preserver, an eyeball, or a pool ball without a number: you decide.

Beam Pro users can check out all the freshly baked features now in the new beta while mainstream Beam users will see the updates roll out in early 2017. Beam for the Xbox One console is expected to arrive sometime this winter as well, along with “hybrid” applications for mobile users in early 2017.

As a reminder, Beam Pro costs $8 per month, and provides access to new features, premium support, premium chat highlights, and a “2x” experience multiplier. The subscription tier also removes advertisements.

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Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
Why cloud gaming is the linchpin in Microsoft’s troubled Activision Blizzard acqusition
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The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) delivered a shocker this week when it blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Wednesday. While a lot of focus on Microsoft’s fight was centered around whether or not the acquisition would give Xbox consoles an unfair advantage over PlayStation consoles, what ultimately decided it was a much smaller market: cloud gaming.
The idea of being able to stream the game you’re playing from the cloud has existed for well over a decade. Cloud gaming’s relevance to the video game industry has only grown over the past several years thanks to both failed and successful efforts from big tech companies like Google, Amazon, and, most importantly, Microsoft. Still, cloud gaming is considered relatively niche, with Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick calling it "inconsequential" in an interview with Bloomberg and UCL Associate Profession Joost Rietveld saying it’s not a distinct market in a submission to the CMA.
Despite those pleas, the CMA claims that cloud gaming is a “nascent market” and that “already strong incumbent in this market even stronger” in its 418-page report on the matter. Following the CMA’s decision on Wednesday, I spoke to several different analysts to find more clarity about how big Microsoft is in the cloud gaming space and why the CMA should feel compelled to intervene. While experts mostly side with Microsoft over the CMA on this decision, one greater truth emerged from these discussions. Whether one thinks cloud gaming is relevant to this acquisition or not, this emergent style of gaming has reached a point of no return where it'll be instrumental to the video game industry going forward. 
Microsoft, king of cloud gaming
Cloud gaming may sound like a niche within the industry, but that's not entirely accurate. BrandFinance Managing Director Laurence Newell tells Digital Trends that “cloud-based services account for over 70% of Microsoft’s brand value, amounting to a staggering $137.5 billion.” That’s quite an eye-catching number that understandably would raise a regulator's alarm bells. However, Newell admits that gaming only makes up 8.5% of Microsoft’s revenue, and cloud gaming is an even smaller amount of that slice.
Despite its relatively small impact on the wider company, most of the experts I spoke to agreed that Microsoft has emerged as a cloud gaming leader thanks to its compatibility with a large segment of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library. Conversely, Activision Blizzard has had almost no cloud gaming presence outside of one Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice port on Google Stadia before that service’s shutdown. If it were to be acquired, it is inevitable that more Activision Blizzard games would likely come to cloud-based gaming services.

Despite the shutdown of Google Stadia and the relatively small brand value received from cloud gaming compared to the rest of the company, the CMA still points out in the press release about its decision that “monthly active users in the U.K. more than tripled from the start of 2021 to the end of 2022. It is forecast to be worth up to 11 billion British pounds globally and 1 billion pounds in the U.K. by 2026.” Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the UCL School of Management Joost Rietveld, who has also been a consultant for Microsoft during its acquisition process, challenges the notion that cloud gaming as a whole is a single market.
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“Arguable” stands out as the keyword to me here. Like any emergent technology, we’re heavily debating the positives and negatives of cloud gaming, specifically through the lens of this acquisition. But what exactly is it that the CMA sees in Microsoft that worries them?
The CMA’s problem with Microsoft
“The CMA’s argument is not that acquiring Activision Blizzard would allow Microsoft to dominate the console market as a whole, where Sony and Nintendo have strong positions relative to Xbox, but only that it would help it to achieve a dominant position in cloud gaming specifically,” Bailey tells Digital Trends. “Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will likely argue that this is disproportionate, given the relatively small scale of the cloud gaming market.”

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Microsoft pledges to bring Xbox PC games to Nvidia GeForce Now
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Microsoft has announced a 10-year partnership with Nvidia aimed at bringing Xbox PC games to its cloud gaming service competitor Nvidia GeForce Now as part of its ongoing efforts to win over companies skeptical of its potebtial Activision Blizzard acquisition.
This means that players can use Nvidia GeForce Now to play the Steam, Epic Games Store, or Windows versions of titles like Halo Infinite, Redfall, and eventually, Call of Duty through the cloud on GeForce Now. Third-party publishers with games on the Windows Store can also now grant streaming rights to Nvidia. This announcement came during a European Commission hearing where Microsoft tried to convince regulators that its impending acquisition should bne allowed.
Microsoft has been under a lot of regulatory scrutiny even since it announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard in January 2022. It's trying to win over industry peers with deals like this one with Nvidia. This week, the Communications Workers of America voiced its approval of the deal, and Microsoft has signed a binding agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms as well. Previously, Nvidia had raised concerns about Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition, but the press release announcing this agreement states that the deal "resolves Nvidia's concerns," and that Nvidia now gives "full support for regulatory approval of the acquisition." 
Regulatory bodies in the U.S., U.K., and Europe are worried that Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard will hurt the game industry and sabotage Microsoft's competitors in both console and cloud gaming. Nvidia GeForce Now is seen as one of the biggest competitors to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's cloud service offerings, which makes it surprising that it reached an agreement with Nvidia. However, this deal also demonstrates how Microsoft is willing to make concessions so that its acquisition of Activision Blizzard is approved.

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It’s been over two years since the start of the current console generation, which launched with a rocky start at the end of 2020. You'd think it's been more than long enough to understand what it's all about, but for many, there's still confusion. That might be changing this year. As Tomas Franzese wrote earlier this month, 2023 could be the year where we finally see what games define this generation’s consoles, at least in terms of exclusives. He also noted that games could stop being cross-platform, launching on just current-gen consoles instead of simultaneously on last-gen ones.

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