Highlights:
- Microsoft shuts its video game streaming services named Mixer
- Microsoft has asked its users to shift to Facebook Gaming
- Earlier, Apple rejected to tie-up with Facebook Gaming
In a big move the US based tech giant, Microsoft, has decided to shut down its video game streaming service name “Mixer”. Microsoft has now teamed up with another US based tech giant, Facebook, to enable the Mixer community to transition to Facebook Gaming.
Mixer, which never lived up to the hopes of running as an independent gaming platform such as Twitch from Amazon and now Microsoft is encouraging its users and others to use Facebook Gaming.
On Monday, Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox announced, “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,”.
The Facebook-Microsoft partnership comes at a time when Apple had rejected Facebook Gaming app on the iOS App Store, as it is a direct competitor to its Livestream gaming service named Apple Arcade.
From now, all the Mixer sites and application will redirect its users to Facebook Gaming. For Mixer partners, streamers and even the viewers, Microsoft said it will answer all their questions in detail soon.
In the month of April, Facebook Gaming saw a growth of 238% in total hours watched on Year-on-Year bases, it could also be a result of the lockdown which has forced people to stay indoors due to the novel Coronavirus. However, given that for the same period, Twitch saw a growth of 101% it could be said Facebook Gaming could be here to stay.
Facebook witnessed its biggest significant leap when looked from the lens of personal growth as the company greatly benefitted from the release of its standalone gaming app along with successfully hosting multiple celebrity tournaments.
Spencer says that their priority and focus now is on the world-class content being made by 15 Xbox Game Studios, the launch of Xbox Series X, the evolution of Xbox Game Pass, and the global oppu=ortunity to play anywhere with the Project xCloud.
He added, “We’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform,” he added.
Each month, over 700 million (70 crore) people play a game on Facebook, watch a gaming video or interact in a gaming group. In April, Facebook launched its very own gaming application for Android on the Google Play Store.
Facebook said that they are not surprised by Apple’s decision as they have been trying to launch the Facebook Gaming application on the App Store since February and have not been successful.
Miscosoft Project xCloud will be able to deliver games to all kinds of screens and windows, including even those on Facebook.
“In the meantime, we will continue to invest time, energy, and resources to bring Project xCloud to global scale through Azure.
Spencer said, “We’re always testing new features and learning, and we’re excited to explore further as we look to debut click-to-play scenarios within the Facebook Gaming and Instagram communities,”. Moving forwards, Microsoft Teams will leverage on Mixer’s vast investments in the ultra-low latency video streaming, video distribution and even the real-time interaction capability.
