Mixer, the esports live streaming platform owned by technology giant Microsoft, is to be closed from July 22, following a deal struck between its owner and Facebook.
Despite significant investment into the platform, including signing a multi-million dollar exclusivity deal with esports star Ninja, Microsoft has decided to sunset Mixer in order to focus on developing its partnership with Facebook Gaming.
Ninja and the rest of the gamers who had been signed to Mixer will no longer be tied to exclusivity deals, although Microsoft expects their content to continue to appear on the new platform, with all streamers set to be granted partner status if they wish to move over to Facebook Gaming.
From July 22, the Mixer website and app will direct users to Facebook Gaming instead. As part of the deal, Microsoft’s cloud-based games-streaming service xCloud is being brought over to Facebook.
A Mixer statement said: “Ultimately, the success of partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the platform for them as quickly and broadly as possible.
“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 that Microsoft and Xbox want to deliver for gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”