Now it is certain: On July 22nd, Microsoft’s mixer will close its doors despite deals worth millions. What will happen to Ninja & Co. now?
Nobody had expected that: The shutdown of Microsoft’s own streaming platform Mixer was surprisingly announced and is supposed to happen on July 22nd. Many streamers are at the crossroads now. Back to Twitch? Or to go new ways? Not even a year ago Mixer signed the biggest streamers of the competition Twitch. Big names such as Ninja, Shroud or DrDisresprect switched to the new star in the streaming sky for deals worth millions. But Mixer could not prevail against Facebook, YouTube and market leader Twitch. Now it’s over.
Nobody wants to go to Facebook Gaming
According to Streamlabs, Mixer had a market share of only 2% in the first quarter of 2020. Facebook was not much better off at 11%. YouTube at 22% is twice as high, but Twitch is the clear winner in the streaming segment with 65% market share. Mixer is being sold by Microsoft to Facebook Gaming and the social media giant would also like to keep the partner contracts. According to an insider, Facebook tried to keep the streamers by doubling their payment.
Sources: Facebook offered an insane offer at almost double for the original Mixer contracts of Ninja and Shroud but Loaded/Ninja/Shroud said no and forced Mixer to buy them out. Ninja made ~$30M from Mixer, and Shroud made ~$10M
Ninja and Shroud are now free agents
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) June 22, 2020
Ninja and Shroud were paid off by Microsoft because their mixer contracts were prematurely terminated. Ninja is said to have received about 30 million US dollars, Shroud about 10 million. Both can now find a new home for their livestreams and the thousands of viewers they attract. Facebook Gaming is therefore not having an easy time competing in the market. Already last year the ESL announced that they were not satisfied with the Facebook streams.
New chance for Facebook Gaming?
So on July 23rd all mixer sites and applications will be redirected automatically. And the mixer partners will also have direct partner status on Facebook Gaming. On top of that, all streamers that use the monetization of mixer are qualified for the Facebook level upgrade program. And also the viewers should not go away empty handed: If you have outstanding credit or subscriptions, they will receive the equivalent value in Xbox gift card credits.
The partnership between Facebook and Microsoft is strategic. They want to work closely together in the cloud gaming sector with their “xCloud project” and develop a competing product to Google’s “Stadia”. This should make the border between live streams and gaming disappear. Users can play the video games themselves that are currently being broadcast live with just one click. The new system should enable many revolutionary possibilities for streamer-viewer interaction. Whether the experiment will succeed remains to be seen.
