Microsoft has announced plans to shut down streaming service Mixer next month and begin a partnership with Facebook Gaming.
After acquiring Beam in 2016, Microsoft soon renamed the Twitch competitor Mixer and expanded upon its capabilities. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the company was unable to scale the platform in the way they would have liked, and the service will be shutting down after July 22nd. A Mixer blog post put up today discusses the reasoning for the platform’s shutdown.
“It became clear that the time needed to grow our 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 we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”
Transitioning From Mixer
That new platform is Facebook Gaming. This partnership begins with the two companies making it easy for streamers to switch over to Facebook Gaming. Some of the steps being taken to ease the transition between platforms include giving Mixer Partners a similar partner status on Facebook Gaming and allowing streamers using Mixer’s open monetization program to use Facebook Gaming’s Level Up Program.
Also, all Embers and Sparks spent in June will reward Mixer Partners with double the normal earnings. Any currency or subscriptions left over after the service shuts down will be turned into an Xbox Gift Card credit.
Microsoft’s partnership with Facebook doesn’t end after Mixer shuts down. The Mixer Blog post says Facebook Gaming users may have the ability to partner with the Xbox ecosystem, including using Xbox Game Pass and Project xCloud. Over at Xbox Wire, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer made a post about the end of the streaming service. In this post, he mentions the company is looking into using Project xCloud “to debut click-to-play scenarios within the Facebook Gaming and Instagram communities.”
Microsoft’s invested heavily into Mixer, so the decision to end the service couldn’t have been taken lightly. Last year, the company reportedly spent tens of millions to get Tyler “Ninja” Blevins to stream exclusively on Mixer. Later in the year, Microsoft also signed Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek to an exclusivity deal. Both of these streamers are now reportedly free to use whatever streaming platform they want.
