Microsoft is shutting down Mixer: streamers and subscribers will move to Facebook Gaming, and “stars” Ninja and Shroud are now free of obligations.
Microsoft is shutting down Mixer
Microsoft has officially announced the end of its gamer-focused streaming service Mixer on July 22, 2020. The company will further develop this segment together with Facebook Gaming, while major platform “stars” like Ninja (Ninja short bio) and Shroud have been released from obligations and can now stream on any platform they like.
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The reason – competition
The main reason for the closure of Mixer at Microsoft was called the insufficiently rapid growth of the audience, which didn’t allow to compete on equal terms with Twitch, YouTube and Facebook Gaming. That is why the company decided not to spend money on supporting a long-term successful service, but to join forces with Facebook, focusing on the further integration of xCloud into Facebook Gaming.
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The decision to close Mixer came as a complete surprise to everyone involved, as demand for online entertainment has grown under quarantine conditions, and Microsoft has recently been quite aggressive in signing contracts with popular streamers.
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According to rumors, the transition of the aforementioned Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “Shroud” Grzesik from Twitch to Mixer cost Microsoft several tens of millions of dollars (only Ninja paid about $ 20-30 million).
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All existing streamers and Mixer subscribers will be able to migrate to the Facebook Gaming platform while maintaining the same monetization terms and account tier. The Mixer service will run until July 22, 2020, after this date it will redirect to the Facebook Gaming page.
History: The Mixer service was launched in early 2016 under the name Beam, and at the end of the year it was acquired by Microsoft. In 2017, the platform underwent a rebranding to compete with Twitch, which is the most popular game streaming service.
Source: the Verge
