Mixer closes, partners with Facebook Gaming

Microsoft’s livestreaming platform for gamers, Mixer, has announced that it will close operations and help streamers move to Facebook Gaming.

Mixer has been seen as a competitor to other livestreaming platforms for gamers such as YouTube and Twitch. It went so far as to sign some of Twitch’s biggest streamers to exclusivity agreements valued at millions of dollars.

Mixer says, however, that growing the community to the scale needed would require time that didn’t align with Microsoft and Xbox’s vision.

“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,” the company said in a statement.

“To better serve our community’s needs, we’re teaming up with Facebook to enable the Mixer community to transition to Facebook Gaming.”

If Mixer partners choose to transition to Facebook Gaming, they will receive partner status on the platform. Mixer says that Facebook will also “honor and match all existing partner agreements as closely as possible”.

The livestreaming service will continue to run until 22 July 2020. After this date, the company’s website will redirect to Facebook Gaming.

However, it’s unclear whether major streamers such as Ninja and Shroud on the platform will move to Facebook Gaming or choose to return to Twitch or another service.

On his Twitter account, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins said that he has some decisions to make.

I love my community and what we built together on Mixer. I have some decisions to make and will be thinking about you all as I make them.

— Ninja (@Ninja) June 22, 2020

Meanwhile, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek said that he is also figuring out his next steps.

I appreciate the Mixer community and everything I’ve been able to do on the platform. I love you guys and am figuring out my next steps. 💙

— Michael Grzesiek (@shroud) June 22, 2020

Feature image: Mixer