In a surprising move, Microsoft revealed that they will discontinue Mixer on July 22, 2020 and move existing partners over to Facebook Gaming.
This will be a gradual process over the coming month, with current partners or monetization rights will be granted the same status with Facebook Gaming. As for users with Ember, subscriptions and/or Mixer Pro will get Xbox gift card credit.
While the news itself is surprising, it was no surprise Microsoft had issues increasing Mixer’s marketshare, resulting in it falling behind Twitch, YouTube and more. Even after attempting for multiple years and trying to attract big names and massive plays at events like E3, it still managed to fall short of where other services were at, which was a big part of the decision.
“We started pretty far behind, in terms of where Mixer’s monthly active viewers were compared to some of the big players out there,” said 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.”
Given Microsoft’s recent moves towards making the Xbox brand more inclusive than their own equipment, this could lead to some interesting changes in the coming generation. In addition to their upcoming xCloud service and Xbox Series X console, among other things, it will be exciting to see what kind of changes this brings. Even a small change like increasing Facebook Gaming’s marketshare could result in massive changes from Twich or YouTube, but only time will tell.