Mixer shutting down, Microsoft partnering with Facebook Gaming

Microsoft today announced that the company will be shutting down Mixer, its official streaming service, and that Microsoft is teaming up with Facebook to enable the Mixer community to move to Facebook Gaming.

In an Xbox Wire post, Phil Spencer said that “it became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”

Spencer also mentioned that Microsoft will be working to transition the community over to Facebook Gaming over the next few weeks and, as of July 22nd, Mixer will close for good. Along with Mixer’s shutdown on July 22nd, all Mixer sites and apps will redirect users to Facebook Gaming.

If you’re part of the Mixer community, you can move over to the Facebook Community instead if you wish to do so. For more information on what this entails, you can read the list below, courtesy of the official Mixer blog.

• Mixer Partners will be granted partner status with Facebook Gaming, and the platform will honor and match all existing Partner agreements as closely as possible. Mixer Partners will receive an update from Mixer today on how to kickoff the sign-up process.
• Streamers participating in Mixer’s open monetization program will be granted eligibility for the Facebook Gaming Level Up Program, where you can continue to grow and monetize your streams. Facebook Gaming will also fast-track onboarding for eligible streamers.
• We encourage all Mixer viewers to spend their remaining Embers and Sparks to help support your favorite Mixer Partners and streamers. Mixer Partners will receive double-payment for all of their earnings in the month of June – so your support of Embers, Sparks and channel subscriptions for Mixer Partners will go even further during the rest of this month. 
• Viewers with outstanding Ember balances, channel subscriptions or Mixer Pro subscriptions will receive Xbox Gift Card credit as a thank you for your engagement on the platform. Details on what you can expect can be found at this FAQ. 
• The Mixer service will continue to run through July 22, 2020. After that,?Mixer.com will redirect to fb.gg, Facebook’s desktop home for gaming video, Mixer broadcasting on Xbox One will be temporarily disabled and the Mixer apps will notify or redirect viewers to continue watching their favorite streamers at Facebook Gaming. 

Spencer also said that Mixer’s closure doesn’t mean that it’s the end of what the streaming service has contributed to the company, as “Microsoft Teams will leverage Mixer’s deep investments in ultra-low latency video streaming, real-time interactivity, and video distribution technology to accelerate our ability to support a variety of video-first, virtual experiences from meetings to live events to other broadcast scenarios.”