Microsoft to Close Livestreaming Service Mixer, Partner With Facebook Gaming

Microsoft has announced they are partnering with Facebook Gaming and will close their livestreaming service Mixer on July 22. Existing users will be encouraged to transition over to Facebook Gaming.

The decision to close Mixer was due to its lack of audience, a problem Facebook does not have.

“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 Mixer team said in a statement.

After July 22, Mixer sites and apps will redirect to Facebook Gaming. The Xbox One broadcast section will be temporarily disabled.

https://twitter.com/WatchMixer/status/1275134189738713088

Recall that last year, Microsoft paid huge money to such famous Twitch streamers as Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Cory “KingGothalion” Michael, and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek to broadcast exclusively on Mixer.

Of these three, only KingGothalion agreed to join Facebook Gaming. His deal with Facebook begins on Wednesday.

According to journalist Richard Lewis and cybersports specialist Rod Breslau, Facebook offered Ninja and Shroud almost twice as much as the original contract with Mixer, for which they received $30 million and $10 million respectively. Both streamers turned it down and are now free agents.

Sources: Facebook offered an insane offer at almost double for the original Mixer contracts of Ninja and Shroud but Loaded/Ninja/Shroud said no and forced Mixer to buy them out. Ninja made ~$30M from Mixer, and Shroud made ~$10M

Ninja and Shroud are now free agents
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) June 22, 2020