Microsoft are shutting down Mixer and transitioning to Facebook Gaming
Microsoft and Xbox are shutting down live streaming Twitch competitor, Mixer with all content transitioning to Facebook Gaming on July 22nd.
Despite huge signings with Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, Cory “King Gothalion” Michael and Soleil “Faze Ewok” Wheeler Mixer never got the number of users it had wanted across the site. Ninja had 14.7 million Twitch followers before the switch and now has 3.1 million followers on Mixer. Ninja signed an exclusive contract with Mixer, worth around $20-30 million, to leave Amazon’s Twitch service. Due to the closure of Mixer, these gamers are now released from their contract and can decide where to go.
No doubt these huge personalities will be getting outragous offers from the competition. Facebook reportedly offered Ninja and Shroud almost double the original Mixer contracts to stay on the platform exclusively. The deals were turned down, forcing a buy-out from Mixer. Ninja supposedly made around $30m from the buy out, with Shroud around $10m.
Despite potentially getting double for joining Facebook, the rejection from the creators makes sense as there is uncertainty around the success of Facebook Gaming and therefore their audience sizes. It gives them free choice of services such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming. Shroud and Ninja, likely surrounded by piles of cash, responded:
Other Partners of Mixer can transition to Facebook Gaming and receive similar agreements and monetization options. Those on Mixer’s monetization program will automatically be eligible for Facebook Gaming’s Level Up Program. Click here for more details. Embers, Mixer’s in-house currency, will be converted into Xbox gift cards for a similar value by July 31st and expire September 30th. Mixer’s site and apps will redirect to Facebook Gaming.
Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the service for them as quickly and broadly as possible. It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform. To better serve our community’s needs, we’re teaming up with Facebook to enable the Mixer community to transition to Facebook Gaming.
Phil Spencer – Head of Xbox
Microsoft’s transition to Facebook and the success of the service will be crucial as Xbox have two major services on the horizon. Xbox Series X – the next generation console to battle the Playstation 5, and Project xCloud – Microsoft’s cloud-gaming service.