Microsoft has accounted that Mixer is shutting down. Mixer which was meant to be a competitor to streaming services twitch and pull users from youtube has had its plug pulled ending its service on July 22nd. All streamers on xbox will be moved over to Facebook gaming and partnered streamers will have the option to be included with this move or could move back to twitch if they would like.
Mixer was purchased by Microsoft being known as beam.io but has struggled to gain a user. While they attempted to pull large steamers from twitch to help boost their service, they were unable to keep views on the platform.
According to Phil Spencer, this move was more about finding a larger audience for the Xcloud. If you do not know what Xcloud it is a service which allows you to stream games directly on a mobile device and does not require a Xbox console and does not require downloading the game. While Xcloud has not yet launch it is expected to launch with the new Xbox series X.
Microsoft has been working to expand their reach as of late. Not only with mixer, but they have targeted PC gamers by opening the xbox gamepass to PC players as an option and providing more support to them, which is the past they have ignored. With the transition to Facebook they are once again looking to expand to a larger audience and we will see how Xcloud will go.
We saw what google has done with stadia which has not been successful yet. But we will see what Microsoft brings to the table which we believe should be more enticing to gamers, but will the technology stand up to expectations