Mixer: Ninja and other streaming stars could return to Twitch as Microsoft shuts down app to partner with Facebook

Video game streamers Ninja, Shroud, and King Gothalion will be free to return to Twitch following Microsoft’s decision to shut down its game streaming platform Mixer.

Microsoft will close the service on 22 July, and instead partner with Facebook Gaming.

On that date, all Mixer sites and apps will automatically be redirected to Facebook Gaming.

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Cory “King Gothalion” Michael, and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek all left Twitch for multimillion-dollar contracts that meant exclusivity for Microsoft’s platform.

But they could now be free either to stay on Facebook Gaming, return to Twitch, or pursue any other platform.

“It’s up to them and their priorities,” Vivek Sharma, the head of Facebook Gaming, said to The Verge.

“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” Blevins said on Twitter.

“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” said Grzesiek.

Cory Michael, meanwhile, appears to be continuing on to Facebook Gaming: “I will be actively trying to help folks over on FB. I know we have strong community leaders on Twitch and YouTube,” he tweeted.

It is possible that the streamers will continue on both Facebook Gaming and Twitch, as the company has not been making its contracts exclusive.

Many prominent Facebook Gaming streamers, such as Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang, still stream on Twitch.

In a blog post, Microsoft explained why the company was shutting down its platform.

“Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the platform for them as quickly and broadly as possible," it read.

"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."

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

The company had struggled to meet the same success as Amazon-owned Twitch.

Twitch has approximately 15 million daily active users. By contrast, Mixer only managed to capture 10 million monthly active users.

The company also found it difficult to get users watching more video. In December 2019, Twitch and YouTube Gaming hosted over 700 million and 300 million hours of content, respectively.

Facebook Gaming hosted a little over 100 million hours. Mixer hosted approximately 31 million hours.

Microsoft had the options of ending Mixer, selling it, or investing more money into it.

“It wasn’t as much about return on sell, it was about finding a partnership that was the best things for the community and streamers,” Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, said. “We think this is it, and it gives us a great place to launch more xCloud content and give gamers the ability to play from there.”

The company is set to launch the Xbox Series X soon, the competitor to the PlayStation 5.

It’s now expected that console will host Facebook Gaming.

It is unclear how Facebook Gaming will integrate with Project xCloud, a service from Microsoft that streams video games through the internet so they can be played on multiple devices that has been compared to “Netflix for games”

“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” wrote Microsoft in a post.