Microsoft under the wing of Xbox has just acquired Beam, interactive livestreaming service that’s not the conventional you see offered by Twitch or Astro’s EGG. Beam gives viewers the ability to watch and play along with their game streamers in real-time.

From a passive game streaming watch-and-chat service, the company has evolved the experience into one with real-time participation by the viewer; directly into a streamer’s game play and live broadcast.

The team will now work directly with the Xbox family and make Xbox Live more social and fun, using “Minecraft” as an example, with Beam users don’t just watch a streamer play, they can play along with them.

One of the best parts about Beam is that interactivity is easy for streamers to enable and customize, and is designed to work with any game.

As Beam’s CEO Matt Salsamendi says in his own blog post, Beam remains committed to its mission of empowering users and streamers across platforms and will now be better positioned to grow and give more back to the community.