Xbox Live gets more social with Microsoft's Beam buy

The live-streaming interactive gaming service enables real-time participation by viewers.

Beam allows you to watch your favorite gamer and participate in gameplay 

Microsoft is betting a Seattle-based startup can make Xbox Live more social and fun.
Beam, which launched in January, is a game-streaming service that lets viewers actually participate in gameplay instead of just watching and chatting.
In a post on Microsoft's official blog, Xbox Live Program Manager Chad Gibson used Minecraft as an example, explaining Beam would allow you to not only watch your favorite streamer, but give them new challenges and make real-time choices such as tool selection that would change gameplay.
"This acquisition will help gamers enjoy the games they want, with the people they want, and on the devices they want," Gibson said in the post.
Beam currently has more than 100,000 users.