Mixer is shutting down, will be merged into Facebook Gaming

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Microsoft's attempts to overthrow Twitch as the streaming platform king have abruptly come to a halt, with the announcement that Mixer will soon be no more. Despite all the money thrown into the service in order to secure exclusivity contracts with streaming icons such as Ninja, Microsoft is throwing in the towel as of today, with Mixer to exist on life support for another month until the service shuts down on July 22nd. Following that date, Mixer will then redirect to Facebook Gaming, in the hopes of finding success by combining Facebook's popularity and Microsoft's xCloud technology, which will, according to the company, ideally let you seamlessly switch from checking out gameplay videos to actually playing them with just one click. Mircosoft purchased Mixer, previously called Beam, in 2016, where they heavily pushed the service to compete with both YouTube Gaming and Twitch to no avail.

For us at Xbox, the player is at the center of the gaming experience, always. It’s our responsibility to make sure great games and related experiences go to meet players wherever they are. Our priority and focus is on the world-class content being made by our 15 Xbox Game Studios, the evolution of Xbox Game Pass, the launch of Xbox Series X, and the global opportunity to play anywhere with Project xCloud.

Bringing that vision to life, for as many people as possible, will see us working with different partners, platforms, and communities for years to come. It will also see us adjusting our strategy to best serve players wherever they gather daily, which includes the category of livestreaming. We’re grateful for the collective work from the Mixer community in creating a welcoming, supportive, and positive place from day one.

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.

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Beginning today, Facebook Gaming will make it easy for anyone in the Mixer community to join, if they choose to do so. We will work to transition the Mixer community over the next few weeks. Starting on July 22, all Mixer sites and apps will redirect users to Facebook Gaming. For Mixer Partners, streamers, and viewers, we expect you’ll have many questions – you can find more details on how we will support the transition to Facebook Gaming on the Mixer blog here.

Transitioning the Mixer community is a key part of a broader effort that Xbox and Facebook Gaming are embarking on, bringing new experiences and opportunities to Facebook, where every month more than 700 million people play a game, watch a gaming video, or interact in a gaming Group.

Continued Focus on the Future of Xbox

Everything we’ve done to date at Xbox has been to meet players where they are and reduce the friction between curiosity and play as much as possible. Making it easy for players to discover and play games wherever they are creates new, viable pathways for developers to reach new players and to be rewarded for new ideas. This is where our work can make the widest impact.

Key to this vision is our Project xCloud technology, which we see delivering games to all kinds of screens and windows in your life, including those on Facebook. Gaming is already part of our social fabric, and Project xCloud can take you from discussing a new game – whether it’s a funny in-game moment posted by a friend, an ad, or an ongoing stream – directly to playing it. In the future, through the power of Xbox Live and Project xCloud, we see there being just one click between “I’m watching” and “I’m playing.”

In the meantime, we will continue to invest time, energy, and resources to bring Project xCloud to global scale through Azure. We’re always testing new features and learning, and we’re excited to explore further as we look to debut click-to-play scenarios within the Facebook Gaming and Instagram communities.

Mixer Technology Across Microsoft

Gaming has always pushed technology forward. Livestreaming services, like Mixer, have pioneered a new level of interactive experiences at scale, born from the simple fact that players drive the action in a game. Although the Mixer community will be able to transition to Facebook Gaming, the innovative technology that powered the platform will stay with and live on across Microsoft.

Microsoft Teams will leverage Mixer’s deep investments in ultra-low latency video streaming, real-time interactivity, and video distribution technology to accelerate our ability to support a variety of video-first, virtual experiences from meetings to live events to other broadcast scenarios. Applying these fan-centric capabilities to new productivity experiences will create immersive ways for Teams to empower people, teams, and organizations to better engage in virtual gatherings at work and school.

At Xbox, as we focus on bringing great games and experiences to more people around the world, we look forward to meeting new and even bigger communities as they gather around their favorite games.

:arrow: Source
 

VitaType

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They didn't tried it for a along time to be fair. Since when did MS become so "google" in killing a project after a short while if it dosn't meeting astronomic high expactations? Guess FB just had a extremly good offer :rolleyes:
 
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FAST6191

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I guess it's similar to sports. Some people might enjoy watching the "sportsballgame (tm)" live on "sportscablenetwork", others will be happy with watching the edited highlights later on.
I know people pay 80€ per month for a sky subscription only to watch the football socer league games live.

Edited highlights are still constrained by TV formats. Doing this internet lark then someone can trim a play session from 2 hours to 20 minutes or 53 as the needs of the thing dictate, not to mention I can watch it at 2x speed.

Also see NFL RedZone. Basically a service that will flick between things live as it looks like interesting plays are about to happen. Rather popular.

As far as live comments and chat... watched the occasion stream after the fact (at double speed of course) some of the various film commentary types, building types, history types and the like have done. Never really seen anything added vs a prebaked FAQ (indeed most of the time the minor curation of a prebaked FAQ makes for a tighter setup even if the result is scarcely edited.
Most of the time the break to deal with the paid donation chat things just interrupts flow pointlessly or drags out the end of such things.

Exactly why I've never once watched a stream. It's never as polished as a YouTube video, and most streams are far too long for me to even consider. On rare occasions I will watch a video that's over 50 min; watching something unedited and unpolished 2 h 50 min, or even longer? Hell no.
Length is not a problem for me. 4 hours (though practically 2 because I watch everything at 2x speed, even managed to crack being able to watch the most rural of your countrymen at such a clip a little while back) if it is an interesting conversation is fine by me. Cut out the dead air, go nowhere lines of conversation, maybe shove in a little overlay if you can't do it live (though even the most technically inept have provisions for that now) and I have some compelling stuff to watch.

Also "polished youtube video"... still shocked such a thing exists, though I suppose it is a new type of editing in many ways (in TV world most things being padded or cut down to fit a TV time slot and pander to whatever it deems baseline vs as long as it needs to be with "as much detail as I would want if I watched it").

Edit
They didn't tried it for a along time to be fair. Since when did MS become so "google" in killing a project after a short while if not meeting astronomic expactations? Guess FB just had a extremly good offer :rolleyes:
Microsoft has been a bit better in recent years but they used to do it well.

Of if you prefer if the Simpsons have parodied you doing just that...


15th February 1998 for that one https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Das_Bus
 
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RedBlueGreen

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A competitor to Twitch that, as you can see, has had its shit hit the fan. If only we had more viable competitors to YT and Twitch atm. Whoever is gonna go up against them needs a really good mobile app on both main phone OSes, IMHO.
The problem is partially storage space. In order for them to host videos they need a lot of space, or they can use P2P, but that invites some other issues.

Then there's also other things to consider like infrastructure, staff (moderators and the like), and associated costs (whether they run their own servers, or rent them and pay for a domain name).
 
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Dominator211

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Damn it Microsoft they just lost big time, I'm sure the Zuck man is having some form of euphoria right now, I don't trust Facebook not even a little bit so the fact that Microsoft is partnering with them is making me sick. Facebook is a huge privacy concern and deserves to be tried in a court of law... but that's not for this thread.
 
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RedBlueGreen

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Damn it Microsoft they just lost big time, I'm sure the Zuck man is having some form of euphoria right now, I don't trust Facebook not even a little bit so the fact that Microsoft is partnering with them is making me sick. Facebook is a huge privacy concern and deserves to be tried in a court of law... but that's not for this thread.
I don't exactly trust Microsoft either. I'm only using Windows until all of my software can be run on Ubuntu
 

CrAzYLiFe

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I feel like mixers biggest issue was marketing, outside of my Xbox eco system I would never have really known mixer existed, I feel it was a better platform for viewers however.

And how I use my Xbox I rarely even saw much mixer content on my home screen, mainly because I avoided community stuff and pushed it way down the bottom.
 

codezer0

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People still care what Mat thinks? I stopped caring about him and his channel a few years ago, because it just stopped being enjoyable.
Yeah, MatPat's ego is his downfall. But that's besides the point. At least when it came to his video about the situation regarding Mixer signing Ninja, he still made some good points that while it was great for Ninja to accept, it obviously wasn't to the long term health of the platform.
 

dude1

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not saying Mixer had good brand caché but facebook gaming will be worse it conjours thoughts of grandma playing farmville not "serious gaming" which is what they'd want.

IMO they would be better doing the reverse (still merge but keep the mixer name instead of facebook gaming) or better yet do a complete rebrand with xbox in the name
 

The Catboy

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I like how Microsoft has a history of basically just throwing a lot of money at something and then it all falls apart in like a year or two because Microsoft basically has underpants gnome logic.
Step 1: Throw money at something
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit!
 

FAST6191

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I like how Microsoft has a history of basically just throwing a lot of money at something and then it all falls apart in like a year or two because Microsoft basically has underpants gnome logic.
Step 1: Throw money at something
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit!

Probably more venture capitalist logic.

You see something making someone a lot of money or looking like it will be the next big thing.
You could develop it but you are a lumbering dinosaur that would take months of committees to approve it.
Assuming you can't just buy out the something from the first line you buy a competitor already starting it, and see if you can boost them with your brand or your money to buy press attention, possibly even pretend to be down with the kids and their struggles (how many things started as broadcast your thoughts, share your thoughts, sell what you like as long as it is not illegal and eventually ended up being that but also if we don't like it and our reasons are arbitrary).
If your venture pops absolutely massive (150% profits is nothing, you want thousands. You might settle for market domination as that brings other things like adverts, eyeballs and in Microsoft's case then retention for their other products) then you win, if not then dispose of it and move on to the next thing.
 

nikeymikey

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Personally couldnt give two shits about anything streaming related, when did the world become populated by lazy sheep who just wanna watch someone playing the latest game fad rather than actually playing it themselves. Its all just following the crowd. BORING!!!!!
I have never watched a gaming stream of any kind and doubt i ever will.

IMO gaming is dying, its just becoming more about watching people make money plus 95% of all games nowadays are crap anyway.
 

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