Posted in: Facebook Gaming, Games, Mixer, Video Games | Tagged: facebook, Facebook Gaming, microsoft, Mixer

Microsoft Is Shutting Down Mixer & Partnering With Facebook Gaming

Say goodbye to all of those Mixer feeds as Microsoft and Facebook Gaming have announced a new partnership starting today. The announcement came down on Xbox Wire this afternoon, as the company revealed that they were finally ditching their social streaming platform that was primarily running for Xbox One and PC gamers, and would be switching over everything to FBG. That includes giving all of their Partners a chance to sign up with the new platform, which you can read about below. Microsoft also said it will provide the Project xCloud streaming games service to Facebook Gaming players as part of the new deal.

What this means for some of the more high-profile people under contract such as Ninja, Shroud, King Gothalion, CouRage, Dusgusting Toast, Muselk, Valkyrae, LazerBeam, and others remains to be seen. Depending on how their contracts are worded, we're guessing either they're getting guaranteed money, a buyout, or they are simply free since it most likely says they were exclusive to Mixer, and probably isn't transferable to FBG. So those of you looking to see Ninja jump back to Twitch or make a leap to YouTube Gaming, you'll probably see it happen in the next 48 hours unless a new deal is signed or there's something in the contact we don't know about.

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.

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.

UPDATE: It has been confirmed by reporter Richard Lewis that both Ninja and Shroud opted out of joining FBG. Both men "have received their full payments and as of midnight yesterday were free to engage in talks with other platforms". So we'll see where they land shortly

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