Livestreaming fans will soon bid goodbye to Mixer, Microsoft's live streaming platform. On July 22, Monday, the company will be closing the service and moving over to Facebook Gaming, CNET reported.
Partners and streamers should now be transitioning to Facebook Gaming beginning today, as Mixer will no longer operate in a few weeks from now.
The reason for the shutting down is the company reportedly struggled to reach the targets needed for Mixer to get into competition with YouTube, Twitch, and even with Facebook Gaming.
"We started pretty far behind, in terms of where Mixer's monthly active viewers were compared to some of the big players out there. 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," Microsoft's head of gaming Phil Spencer stated.
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Partnering with Facebook
Microsoft is now entering into a partnership with Facebook to transition the current viewers on their Mixer service over the next weeks. On July 22, all apps and sites will be redirected to Facebook Gaming.
Likewise, any streamers on the Mixer monetization program are granted Facebook's Level Up program eligibility. Viewers of the platform with outstanding Ember balances, Mixer Pro subscription, and channel subscriptions will receive a gift card credit from Xbox, CNET added.
This choice to start the deal with Facebook is seen as a strategic one, since it will also broaden and strengthen the appeal of the upcoming xCloud game streaming service, and the overall efforts.
Mixer's inadequacy?
The company seeks to work closely with the social networking website to take xCloud over to Facebook Gaming, allowing viewers to play and click on games that people are streaming around. This is seen as a vision comparable to the Google plan with Stadia. However, Mixer is showing the inadequacy in viewership and scale in order to deliver these to a wider audience.
Moreover, the company recruited streamers such as Shroud and Ninja with sizable deals, but these have not been adequate to get more people to subscribe to the platform, the report said.
With Facebook Gaming as the alternative, streamers can now rejoin Twitch, as well as those from Shroud and Ninja,
In-depth details
Did you know that Microsoft actually faced deciding between shutting down Mixer, selling it off, or investing in, but without the guarantee, it will hit the targets?
Spencer continued, "It wasn't as much about return on-sell, it was about finding a partnership that was the best thing for the community and streamers. We think this is it, and it gives us a great place to launch more xCloud content and give gamers the ability to play from there."
He pointed out, "When we think about xCloud and the opportunity to unlock gameplay for 2 billion players, we know it's going be critically important that our services find large audiences and Facebook clearly gives us that opportunity."
