Microsoft is giving up on its livestreaming service Mixer. Recently, the company announced that it’s killing the Twitch competitor and instead is partnering with Facebook on its gaming service, Facebook Gaming.
Mixer, which debuted in 2017, has seen the company invest much to help gain traction in the wake of the video games industry boom. The company even went a step further and acquired streaming rights to some eSports stars like Ninja and Shroud just to boost Mixer’s reputation.
Now, Microsoft has realized they arrived late for the party and is giving up playing catchup. Big players in the streaming industry as of now are other big tech companies like Amazon with Twitch and Alphabet with YouTube Gaming.
In an interview with The Verge, Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming said, “We started pretty far behind, in terms of where Mixer’s monthly active viewers were compared to some of the big players out there.”
The sun setting on Mixer means that Microsoft will now move its partnerships and users to Facebook Gaming. For users, it will just be a redirect. But for some of its partnerships with streamers like Ninja, they won’t be forced to move to Facebook Gaming. They have a choice to move to any other streaming platform they want.
In addition to these two aspects, Microsoft will also integrate its xCloud game-streaming service into Facebook Gaming. The integration of xCoud means that Facebook gaming users can be able to play titles available on xCloud via the platform.
The partnership is a big win to Facebook specifically which helps bolsters its position in the video game streaming industry. The social media giant has been slowly squeezing itself into the industry and recently went ahead to launch a dedicated gaming and live streaming application despite some speed bumps encountered along the road. It marked the full entry of the company in the multi-billion dollar gaming industry.
Still a Long Way To Go
Mixer’s partnership with Facebook doesnt crank up Facebook’s market share that much. Besides, it is not a guarantee that all Mixer streamers will head over to Facebook Gaming in the first place.
According to a report from StreamElements released in July 2019, Twitch controls slightly over 70 percent of the market. Followed by YouTube Gaming with a 19 percent share. Facebook Gaming was ranked third but with a minute 5 percent share and Mixer, on the other hand, controlled a nanoscopic 3 percent. These numbers have changed, for a fact, but it should give you the idea of how these platforms stacked up against each other a year ago.