Microsoft announces partnership with Facebook Gaming: Mixer to end service in July

In 2019, the gaming industry saw several high-profile personalities make the move from Twitch to Mixer. Famous streamers such as Richard Tyler "Ninja Blevins, Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek, Cory "King Gothalion" Michael, Elliot "Musselk" Watkins, many others have left Amazon's platform to switch to Microsoft's camp. Thus, to the surprise of many, the latter confirmed that it will shut down its game-focused service on Monday. Instead, the company confirmed everything will shift to Facebook Gaming.

It seems that despite its star-studded lineup of streamers, the service failed to produce numbers that could rival that of YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook Gaming, according to a report from The Verge. The move is probably one of the many big changes Microsoft plans to do in 2020. Earlier this year, it announced that it no longer views Sony and Nintendo as its rivals, but hopes to compete against the likes of Google and Amazon for their respective cloud-based gaming offerings.

"We started pretty far behind, in terms of where Mixer's monthly active viewers were compared to some of the big players out there," explained Microsoft head of gaming Phil Spencer. "I think the Mixer community is really going to benefit from the broad audience that Facebook has through their properties, and the abilities to reach gamers in a very seamless way through the social platform Facebook has," he added.

During the transition in the coming weeks, all links and apps related to Mixer will redirect users to Facebook Gaming instead. Current streamers and partners will also be eligible for similar benefits from the social media company. Meanwhile, viewers who currently still have channel subscriptions, Ember balances, or Mixer Pro services are to receive a credit via an Xbox gift card.

"When we think about xCloud and the opportunity to unlock gameplay for 2 billion players, we know it's going be critically important that our services find large audiences and Facebook clearly gives us that opportunity," Spencer noted. It was reported that the general feedback from the beta phase of its game streaming service was favourable compared to its competitors. As for the technology it developed for Mixer, the company will likely use it for future gaming-related endeavours.