Microsoft Beam is now Mixer, a game-streaming service with support from Telltale

By Gabe Gurwin May 25, 2017

Introducing "Mixer"

Twitch remains the king of video game streaming services, but Microsoft may have just introduced a formidable competitor. Mixer, a relaunched version of the company’s Beam service, offers an interactive game streaming experience through which Microsoft promises no latency.

Launching today on Windows 10 and Xbox One, Mixer offers game streaming without the delays found on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. With almost zero latency, players and viewers can engage more effectively, with comments and reactions synced more closely with the on-screen action.

This low latency also allows viewers to directly interact with games — something that games like Rise of the Tomb Raider have tried in the past.

“With Mixer, you can influence everything from quest selection to tools to movement, mixing it up with your favorite streamers to create a new kind of gaming experience. The Minecraft team is experimenting with the interactivity that Mixer offers as a possibility for official game integration,” said engineering lead Matt Salsamendi in the announcement.

One of the first major partners to make use of this interactivity is Telltale Games. Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, and Batman: The Telltale Series will make use of “crowd play” on Mixer to allow viewers to help make plot choices in real time.

Other features include co-streaming, which will allow up to four streamers to broadcast on the same page, and the 24/7 “Channel One,” which will broadcast the best of Mixer’s content. The “Mixer Create” mobile beta is also available now on iOS and Android, and it will soon allow for mobile game broadcasting and even co-streaming on the go.

Its first big event kicks off tonight at midnight ET with an interactive fireworks show. Viewers can choose which fireworks that Microsoft will send into the sky by spending their “sparks.” These can only be earned by watching other Mixer content.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

You can get a free PC Game Pass subscription via Twitch subscriptions

A gamepad is pictured as a screen displays the online Twitch platform.

Microsoft and Twitch are teaming up to give out free PC Game Pass subscriptions for every Twitch subscription purchase or gift for a limited time. According to a blog post from Twitch, the promotion will last from 10 a.m. PT on November 3 until 3 p.m. PT on November 11.

The promotion works like this: If you buy two of any Twitch subs or gifts, you will get three months of PC Game Pass free of charge. Once you've made your purchase, a code will be sent to your Twitch notifications inbox for you to redeem on the Xbox site. However, you already need to be newly subscribed to PC Game Pass in order to be eligible to receive the code.

Gaming

Xbox Game Pass now runs on more PCs and Surface devices

Microsoft Edge gaming updates on screen in a room.

Microsoft is continuing its expansion of the Xbox Game Pass by releasing the ARMS64 version of the Xbox app for Windows. The company wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that the Xbox app has been updated to run natively on Windows PCs and other devices running Arms, including the Surface Pro X and the newly announced Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5.

The expansion of the Xbox app means that you can not only access Xbox Game Pass on recent models of the aforementioned devices, but that the app is also supported on older PCs that were originally not able to support cloud streaming in the first place, including PCs running software as far back as Windows 7. ARMS64 gets its name from the fact that the old PCs are capable of running on 64-bit Windows -- so can the Google Chromebooks.

Gaming

PC Game Pass will now tell you how long it takes to beat games on the service

Microsoft Edge gaming updates on screen in a room.

Microsoft is integrating data from the website How Long To Beat into Game Pass. The company announced its partnership with the IGN-owned website Wednesday, saying it will update the Xbox app on Windows to give Game Pass subscribers time estimates on the game details pages for most of the service's titles on PC.

How Long To Beat is a community-driven website that specializes in calculating the amount of time it takes to play through games, depending on your playstyle. If you just want to get through the main story for Death Stranding, for example, it will take you 40 hours to see the credits roll. If you're a completionist and want to finish the main story, side quests, and unlock every single achievement the game has to offer, it will take you 113 hours (which is a little less than five days) to achieve 100% completion.