Microsoft’s tilt at streaming platform Twitch is coming to an end, as they’re announcing the end of Mixer and a new partnership with Facebook Gaming. This will see all the existing Mixer community and webpages start to redirect to Facebook Gaming, starting on 22nd July.
It’s a pretty major capitulation, after Microsoft invested heavily in the technology behind Mixer, launching in 2017 with a focus on lower latency streaming. They then threw millions and millions of dollars at high profile Twitch streamers to lure them to the platform. Those big names, including Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Cory “King Gothalion” Michael, and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek are now free to return to Twitch or transition to Facebook Gaming.
Update: It’s reported all three turned down Facebook’s offers to double their original contracts, forcing Mixer to buy them out. Ninja and Shroud made around $30 million and $10 million respectively, and are free to sign for other platforms.
Sources: Facebook offered an insane offer at almost double for the original Mixer contracts of Ninja and Shroud but Loaded/Ninja/Shroud said no and forced Mixer to buy them out. Ninja made ~$30M from Mixer, and Shroud made ~$10M
Ninja and Shroud are now free agents
— Rod "4475 SR & Immortal peak" Breslau (@Slasher) June 22, 2020
Simply put, it seems that Microsoft now have some bigger fish to fry right now. They’re gaining major traction with Xbox Game Pass and intend to expand that game subscription’s reach with a very different type of game streaming through Project xCloud. Despite Google Stadia’s recent launch and PS Now on PlayStation, there’s no real dominant force in the arena, and Microsoft could have much better luck dominating this that futilely trying to compete with Twitch or a platform like Facebook Gaming that can tie into social media.
Oh, and there’s the whole Xbox Series X thing as well.
Facebook Gaming will hope that Mixer users transition to their platform, while also offering to honour the existing contracts that Mixer Partners have, as closely as possible. Viewers with the platforms Ember currency, channel subscriptions and Mixer Pro subscriptions will receive Xbox Gift Card credit as a thank you for supporting the platform – details can be found here.
What isn’t being publicly discussed is people who want to nope the heck out of giving Facebook their data. We’ll dig into how you can delete any Mixer presence you might have before it’s handed over to big F and update this post.
Update: Here’s Mixer’s support page for how to manage and delete your data from the platform.
Source: Mixer
Starman
Knew this was coming. Now they can stop promoting it on the xbox dashboard.