Mixer will soon be absorbed into Facebook Gaming, Microsoft has confirmed, with exclusive streamers Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek likely returning to stream on Twitch.
Mixer will go dark from 22 July, with all accounts and apps redirecting to Facebook Gaming from then.
“It became clear that the time needed to grow our own live-streaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now,” Xbox head Phil Spencer said of the move on Xbox Wire.
Mixer Partners will automatically become Facebook Gaming Partners, with Microsoft asserting that existing agreements will be honoured as much as possible by the new owner. Mixer viewers that have leftover Embers, its in-platform currency, will receive a refund of sorts via an Xbox gift card of a similar value. The credit should appear by 31 July and will expire on 30 September.
As part of this deal, multiple reports suggest that exclusive Mixer streamers Ninja and Shroud have turned down similar, multi-million dollar deals to be exclusive to Facebook Gaming.
“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,” Esports reporter Rod Breslau wrote, citing multiple sources. “Ninja and Shroud are now free agents.”
Ninja hasn’t addressed the reports head-on as yet, only taking to Twitter to say, “I love my community and what we built together on Mixer. I have some decisions to make and will be thinking about you all as I make them.”
When the transition happens, Twitch will be the only platform the Xbox One will be able to natively stream to.
What do you make of today’s announcement?
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