Mixer was Microsoft’s attempt at creating a streaming platform to rival Twitch. Over the past year, Microsoft attracted huge streamers like Ninja and Shroud with sizable pay packages, but it wasn’t enough to boost the platform.
Social media has been awash with tweets and condolences for those content creators who have been displaced by the closure of Mixer. Many have spent months building a community on the platform.
From July 22nd, Mixer will close and be directly partnered with Facebook Gaming. Neither Ninja, Shroud or the other streamers tied to exclusivity deals will have to work with Facebook.
Multiple sources have now reported that Shroud and Ninja refused Facebook Gaming’s exclusivity deal and forced Mixer to pay their remaining contracts. Yes, that means they kept the multi-millions which were offered to them for stream exclusivity.
It’s not clear what Ninja and Shroud will do next, but many are guessing that they’ll make the return to Twitch. Both streamers often had fewer than 10,000 concurrent viewers on Mixer, significantly less than they did on Twitch.
However, Shroud and Ninja are hardly the most important collateral damage. Hundreds of streamers have chosen Mixer to build a community over the past years.
It’s not clear yet how the transition period will work for these streamers. Mixer had a fairly inclusive partnership deal that encouraged streamers to start working on their platform.
Facebook Gaming has stated that all partnership deals will be carried over from Mixer, but it’s not clear how the transference of audiences and subscriptions can be be made from platform to platform.
For many, this is a devastating blow. Months, and possibly years of work, were shut down in a single tweet. However, Streamers can transfer their accounts and partnerships from Mixer to Facebook Gaming by filling in a simple form. Streamlabs have also introduced a new migration tool to quickly transfer Mixer settings over to Facebook Gaming.
Others have been suggesting methods for Mixer streamers to transfer their audience – the rules over on Mixer are pretty loose right now, as many streamers are already promoting their brand new Twitch channels live on stream.