Watch out 'Twitch' , Microsoft's 'Mixer' is coming for you

Remember Beam? Maybe you don’t, which is a totally fair response. Beam was the video game live streaming service Microsoft scooped up to take on Twitch. Beam is no more! Beam is dead! Long live Mixer!

At least, that’s the hope. Microsoft has scrapped the Beam name in favor of Mixer, and platform it hopes mixes (get it?) streaming and social to a more profitable degree.

This isn’t just a name change, though. Microsoft offers on the Xbox Wire that they’ve baked some new features into this bad boy, and some of them sound pretty darn rad. One such feature? Co-op Streaming. Here’s what they say it is.

Co-Streaming Launches Today. Starting today, we’re launching the first built-in cooperative streaming experience on a streaming platform where up to 4 streamers can combine their streams into a single viewer experience. Co-streaming enables multiple channel streams to be displayed on a single Mixer page. You and up to three other friends can deliver a stream that combines separate stream sources into one shared “split-screen” view, including a centralized chat experience. Co-streaming is available now for everyone. And in the coming weeks, Xbox One users will be able to invite friends to join a co-stream directly from the Guide. Co-streaming doesn’t require streamers to play the same game or even do the same activity, and you can join a co-stream with friends who are streaming from different types of devices. Four friends can broadcast a co-op session of “League of Legends” or “PLAYERUNKNOWN’S Battlegrounds,” and then just as easily stream a remote live-band jam session or play a multiplayer board game with their viewers. Viewers don’t need to flip back and forth across different streams to view the same group of streamers – they can watch all the action in one place, while enjoying all the innovative interactivity that Mixer offers.

That last bit of the explanation is what seals the deal for me. Being able to watch a full team, all at once, without hopping between streamers is rad. I’ll be doing that for Overwatch, no doubt about it.

Mixer is live now.

The Mixer service is built directly into the Guide on Xbox One and Game bar on Windows 10.

There is also an iOS and Android app in beta form called 'Mixer Crate'.
Read more at https://news.xbox.com/2017/05/25/xbox-one-windows-10-introducing-mixer/