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Microsoft shutting down Mixer, partners with Facebook Gaming

by Mark Tyson on 23 June 2020, 11:13

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook

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Microsoft has announced "the next step for Mixer," which is basically a step up to the guillotine, as Mixer is being folded into Facebook Gaming. In its blog post Microsoft tries to dress up its deal with Facebook Gaming as a victory, an opportunity, a chance to deliver "new experiences and opportunities to the entire world of gaming," but obviously its games streaming platform wasn't sustainable simply as it didn't have the number of streamers and viewers to make it a success. Mixer apparently had some great qualities but couldn't challenge the market dominance of the likes of Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming.

Only a year ago Mixer was in the headlines for the high profile hiring of Fortnite player Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins, and it similarly grabbed CS:GO pro Michael 'Shroud' Grzesiek from Twitch with a lucrative exclusive streaming deal. There are reports that these streamers have been offered about $60m and $20m, respectively, to transition from Mixer to Facebook Gaming. If they rejected the Facebook Gaming offers, one must assume they will head on back to Twitch.

Providing some more insight into Microsoft's decision, head of Xbox Phil Spencer spoke to Polygon about the transition. "We made a decision earlier this year that we were going to change approach," Spencer said. "We weren't going to be continuing with Mixer as it was, and we wanted to find a partner for us who had a similar worldview on how gaming can evolve and the impact it could have, and a partner that had unique assets to really take that Mixer community, make it their own, and grow it to the level of impact and size that I really think it deserves and needs." Spencer went on to talk about how the scale offered by FBG would be beneficial to streamers hoping to reach a wide audience and make a livelihood.

As part of the deal Microsoft will gain exposure for its xCloud game streaming platform on Facebook - a potential audience of 2bn people. This could be hugely important for Microsoft in its battle against the likes of Google Stadia.

Looking through social media posts by streamers who were committed to Mixer, it is hard to see any positivity. Most are saddened to see the established audiences and communities they have built up over several years potentially evaporate. Microsoft says it is making transitioning as easy and smooth as possible - with a dedicated FB.gg/Mixer page setup to help people move over. Facebook will "honour and match all existing Partner agreements as closely as possible," says Microsoft but I don't know how un/favourable Facebook Gaming's monetisation terms are.

Mixer will shut down on 22nd July.



HEXUS Forums :: 14 Comments

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So basically Mixer didn't reach their target audience numbers. Who didn't see this happening? :D All well looks like Shroud, Ninja etc will be returning to Twitch, bet they loved those huge payouts!
I think Mixer is a horrible app. Clunky, slow and user-unfriendly. But now they expect us to create a Facebook account to do streaming stuff.

To be fair I genuinely don't care. I find watching people play video games utterly pointless. I could be doing something more interesting, like actually playing video games.
s000m
So basically Mixer didn't reach their target audience numbers. Who didn't see this happening? :D All well looks like Shroud, Ninja etc will be returning to Twitch, bet they loved those huge payouts!

I have no idea what “mixer”, “shroud” or “ninja” is/are. I have heard of “twitch” but I'm not sure what it is.

I feel very old.

Damn kids and your music.
Problem is Microsoft gave up to soon, all these major corp's expect gigantic results in just a couple of years.

I really don't get it, to build a good game streaming platform take many years.

They should have built up on mixer with XBOX Series X, Windows 10 and Project xCloud integration for another five years.

Also regular big tournaments with the most popular games to build a steady user base.

Working with the community to add functions that they want, have most requested feature list and then slow and steady added these features.

They would have had massive amount of users coming in, if you give people what they want or the thing they are missing you will succeed.
Feel sorry for them, but to be honest….Twitch is pretty much the go-to place for game streaming, and there isn't any decent competition. YouTube's live streaming is still awful to use, facebook live is just not the right market place (and comes with, well, facebook), whereas Twitch…just works.

Ready made audience, heavily gaming focused, good support once you reach affiliate or higher, and since Amazon bought them and added in prime benefits, the ready made market is even bigger.