Microsoft to Close Mixer to Partner with Facebook Gaming
After the much-vaunted release of Microsoft’s Mixer, the video game streaming platform, has since failed to gain traction with enough gamers and streamers. So much so that the tech giant has announced that it is shutting down the game streaming platform.
Microsoft announced the news on Monday and said that it would be taking efforts to transition the current Mixer streaming community, which had included famous names such as Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, over to the Facebook Gaming platform.
This is important news as it means two of the biggest names in the tech-industry are joining forces in partnership to develop a streaming platform that many experts feel could provide a significant challenge to the current market leader, Amazon’s Twitch service.
“Out of Measure”
Announcing the decision to customers on Monday, Microsoft stated via a blog post on the Mixer platform:
“The success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the platform for them as quickly and broadly as possible. It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences that Microsoft and Xbox want to deliver for gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”
Neither Facebook nor Microsoft have announced how much the partnership will cost, but Facebook spokesperson Drew Symonds was at pains to clarify that the deal was “not a merger or an acquisition.”
As part of the deal, Microsoft will retain the intellectual property rights to Mixer technology, but Facebook Gaming will take on the rights and trademarks for Mixer and any associated domain names for the brand.
From July 22, all Mixer sites and apps will redirect users to Facebook Gaming and any Mixer Partners, who can monetize their content, will be granted partner status on the Facebook Gaming platform and that any terms and conditions part of their agreement with Mixer will “honor and match all existing partner agreements as closely as possible.”
What will the big names in Mixer Live Streaming do?
Mixer have pointed out to customers that the transition to Facebook Gaming is entirely optional and that has raised questions about what some of Mixer’s high profile partners will do. This includes streamers such as Ninja, King Gothalion, Shroud, and Ewok.
While King Gothalion has announced on Twitter that he intends to join Facebook Gaming, Ninja has not committed his future to the platform stating that “I have some decisions to make and will be thinking about you all as I make them.”
That could well be due to the fact that despite agreeing a $20 million to $30 million deal when becoming an exclusive partner with Mixer, Ninja saw a large decrease in viewership when he moved from Twitch and the number of followers he had dropped by more than 10 million.
However, one possibility is the opportunity to stream on multiple channels. Facebook Gaming has not emphasised exclusivity with its new streamers in the past, meaning a number stream on the service and also maintain links with other streaming sites such as Twitch.
The news is not entirely unexpected given the struggles endured by Mixer since it was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 and it has been the smallest of the largest live-streaming services by a considerable margin for some time now, making its future seemingly unsustainable.
Since: August 10, 2015
