Microsoft is looking to take on Amazon's Twitch directly, with the introduction of a new game streaming service, natively built in to Windows 10. It's called Beam, a technology Microsoft acquired as part of a company purchase and will be added to the Game Bar feature which Microsoft has already included with the Xbox One app.
As much as Microsoft might be coming a bit late to the party with the idea of game streaming on Windows, Beam does have some interesting features. For starters, it features very low latency, which means that streams won't be 30+ seconds behind. There's also the ability to award streamers and audience members rewards and experience points, letting them earn something from watching, while you earn something by playing.
There will be cross platform support with the Xbox One and PC, so expect games to work on either or and stream to anyone. However Microsoft is limiting the Beam platform to Windows 10, so don't expect Windows 7 to work well with it.
The question is, do you have to be on Windows 10 to view it? If so, that could be a problem, as there are still many people out there running alternative, or older operating systems. If viewers can't use them to watch a stream, that could really impact uptake.
