Microsoft kills Mixer, will push users to Facebook Gaming

4.7
Microsoft is killing its Twitch competitor Mixer next month and is partnering with Facebook to push its users towards the Facebook Gaming service.

The app is winding down on July 22. The sudden move comes after Microsoft has dumped considerable efforts into its gaming-centric streaming service, acquiring streaming rights to some of the biggest eSports personalities like Ninja and Shroud. Microsoft couldn’t spend its way into meaningfully competing with Amazon’s Twitch and Alphabet’s YouTube Gaming.

The company launched its Mixer service in 2017 after acquiring the gaming startup Beam Interactive in 2016.

Microsoft announced that when the service sunsets, it will be transitioning partnerships to Facebook Gaming and redirecting its users to the service as well. The partnership between the two is a T-Mobile and Sprint partnership of sorts, the two were clearly trailing far behind the YouTube Gaming/Twitch duopoly. The Facebook partnership goes deeper than just watching streams, Microsoft will integrate their xCloud game-streaming service into Facebook Gaming so users can quickly play titles that they see inside the service.

According to an interview in The Verge, top streamers like Ninja won’t be forced to migrate to Facebook Gaming and will be able to rejoin Twitch if they choose. Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer pinned the shutdown on the service’s inability to catch up with competitors, in that interview.

“We started pretty far behind, in terms of where Mixer’s monthly active viewers were compared to some of the big players out there,” says Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, in an interview with The Verge. “I think the Mixer community is really going to benefit from the broad audience that Facebook has through their properties, and the abilities to reach gamers in a very seamless way through the social platform Facebook has.”


According to data from SensorTower, year-to-date downloads of the app on the App Store and Google Play were down 23% in 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 with the app seeing 3.4 million downloads this year. The company says their data shows that the app has been installed about 21 million times in total.

The announcement came in the midst of Apple’s WWDC keynote, so fair to say that Microsoft was likely aiming to minimize attention on this high-profile shutdown.





Posted:
Last Updated:
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/22/microsoft-kills-mixer-its-twitch-competitor/

Related Articles

Comments

"Microsoft kills Mixer, will push users to Facebook Gaming" :: Login/Create an Account :: 14 comments

If you would like to post a comment please signin to your account or register for an account.

RyanPosted:

I can't believe Ninja & Shroud managed to get out of their contracts. It has only been 8 months...

EightThotzPosted:

MushroomElm
EightThotz
breadstick Mixer always ran like ass anyways. Not sure why they chose Facebook, twitch should've been the go to. Runs better, more viewers, not another account to make (who doesn't have twitch)


They haven't chose facebook, they refused facebooks offer.


Did you not read the article? Phil Spencer specifically talks about how they are going to push their audience to use Facebook's game streaming service.


I assume you didnt actually read the guy I quoted? He said "Twitch should have been the go to", clearly implying he's now talking about shroud and ninja. Please don't quote me if you're just blurting out braincells.

AnimePosted:

Sad to see Mixer go but never used it.

MushroomElmPosted:

EightThotz
breadstick Mixer always ran like ass anyways. Not sure why they chose Facebook, twitch should've been the go to. Runs better, more viewers, not another account to make (who doesn't have twitch)


They haven't chose facebook, they refused facebooks offer.


Did you not read the article? Phil Spencer specifically talks about how they are going to push their audience to use Facebook's game streaming service.

XboxPosted:

Damn Mixer RIP

Didn't use it or care much for it anyways.

40Posted:

Daniel Never really used Mixer anyway i've always liked Twitch a lot more, Only thing good about Mixer for me is the option on xbox to go live and stream so your mates can watch you but other than that it's terrible lol. Good Riddance.


Same here, I downloaded it to watch Jimbo's streams. Haven't seen any good content imo yet from mixer.

EightThotzPosted:

breadstick Mixer always ran like ass anyways. Not sure why they chose Facebook, twitch should've been the go to. Runs better, more viewers, not another account to make (who doesn't have twitch)


They haven't chose facebook, they refused facebooks offer.

breadstickPosted:

Mixer always ran like ass anyways. Not sure why they chose Facebook, twitch should've been the go to. Runs better, more viewers, not another account to make (who doesn't have twitch)

DanielPosted:

Never really used Mixer anyway i've always liked Twitch a lot more, Only thing good about Mixer for me is the option on xbox to go live and stream so your mates can watch you but other than that it's terrible lol. Good Riddance.

EightThotzPosted:

ifconfig
EightThotz No doubt youtube will try and scoop up ninja or shroud, doubt they'd go to another smaller platform though


They'll go back to Twitch.


Step back everyone, we have a genius over here


Latest Downloads

Latest Tutorials