Microsoft will shut down Mixer and partner with Facebook Gaming
Microsoft will be terminating their video game streaming platform, Mixer.
In a blog post, Microsoft revealed that “the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on the ability to scale the platform for them as quickly and broadly as possible.”
They continued that it “became clear that the time needed to grow the 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 the team’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”
https://twitter.com/WatchMixer/status/1275134189738713088
That platform will be Facebook Gaming. This partnership will allow Facebook Gaming Creators to take advantage of “the Xbox ecosystem, including future opportunities around Xbox Game Pass, Project xCloud and more.” Facebook Gaming will grant Mixer Partners partner status, and will “honor and match all existing Partner agreements as closely as possible.” The website will remain active until July 22, and after that, it will redirect to fb.gg.
The writing for all this was on the wall. With other streaming platforms growing during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Mixer was stagnant. In a year where livestream viewership increased by 99%, Microsoft’s platform only saw a .02% year over year growth in terms of hours watched. By contrast, Facebook Gaming saw a 238% increase in the same metric. It was reported that Mixer was also going through new management, budget cuts, and layoffs.
The question remains, what will happen to the big-name Twitch streamers that Microsoft signed in their efforts to grow their platform? Cory “KingGothalion” Michael announced that he will be going along with the move over to Facebook Gaming.
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