Xbox rebrands Twitch competitor as Mixer, adds a bunch of new features

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Xbox is making a bigger push into the realm of livestreaming by launching Mixer—a rebranded, retooled version of its previous livestreaming service, Beam—today, May 25th.

Not only is Xbox changing the name but it’s also adding a slew of new features to the service, and that part actually sounds pretty good.

One of the more interesting features for the service, which is available on Xbox and Windows 10, is co-streaming, which “enables multiple channel streams [up to four] to be displayed on a single Mixer page,” according to the official announcement. So, if you want to squad up with three buddies in Battlefield 1 or Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, you can all broadcast at the same time. You could also be playing four separate games entirely and still broadcast your experiences concurrently.

Another focus for Xbox is to bring interactivity more fully into the streaming experience. This means actual live broadcasts, as compared to the latency other streaming services experience, as well as encouraging developers to include tools for “crowd interaction” with Mixer’s Interactive 2.0 developer’s kit.

Xbox will be hosting a “Game-a-thon” in celebration of Mixer’s launch on May 25th, during which it will be livestreaming players competing in a variety of different games.

It seems like Xbox is also trying to more fully integrate into the world of esports and competitive gaming with its Mixer NYC Studio, a fully functional broadcast studio on the fifth floor of its Manhattan-based flagship Microsoft Store. This announcement arrives on the heels of Arena on Xbox Live’s premiere, which allows players to host their own Killer Instinct tournaments through their Xbox app.

First Twitch decides to start selling games. Now Xbox is making a huge push into the streaming market. Pretty soon Nintendo will open a theme park or something equally as crazy. Oh, wait.



Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/xbox-rebrands-twitch-competitor-as-mixer-adds-a-bunch-of-new-features/

Comments

"Xbox rebrands Twitch competitor as Mixer, adds a bunch of new features" :: Login/Create an Account :: 10 comments

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BrigandPosted:

If struggling on twitch to be big, starting out on this "Mixer" could be a good leverage if this does become popular in the future.

KurthyPosted:

Let's be honest, no one is going to use this. Why Xbox decided to start investing in to their own streaming platform instead of elsewhere baffles me. The only way they get any big name streamers to move over is if they offer contract deals similar to what MLG did and that resulted in competitive gameplay for Call of Duty taking a huge downfall.

HaloPosted:

Skates This will never be bigger than Twitch. People will stay on twitch.


Exactly, it's too big and popular at this point.

TOXICPosted:

I will still be using Twitch don't care for Mixer.

SkatesPosted:

This will never be bigger than Twitch. People will stay on twitch.

XboxPosted:

Sounds like it has some interesting features.

MajPosted:

I didn't even know this was a thing. Gonna sign myself up pronto

FibrilPosted:

Previous users of Beam get an original member icon next to their name on their profile, from what I heard, if you were level 10 or above you get free month subscription to a partner and if over level 50, free Pro for a year. Pretty nice :)

larpPosted:

Can't wait to stream with buddies. Will be great for ark!

EchoPosted:

Big name change and logo, Nice to see something different from twitch.
I also like the 4 view livestream! watch from 4 different pov's!
I love this.