So… the streaming industry is on fire.
Earlier today, Microsoft announced that it’s effectively ending Mixer’s run as a streaming platform on July 22nd, diverting its links and fans to Facebook Gaming instead and setting free some of its exclusive partners, including Ninja and Shroud, who earned millions for jumping from Twitch to Mixer last year.
“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,” Microsoft says. “It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming 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. To better serve our community’s needs, we’re teaming up with Facebook to enable the Mixer community to transition to Facebook Gaming. This is a key part of a broader effort that Xbox and Facebook Gaming are embarking on, bringing new experiences and opportunities to the entire world of gaming.”
The move comes just as women from across the games industry have been posting their abuse survival stories to Twitter (collected now on Medium), with multiple sexism, racism, and harassment accusations lobbed at everyone from Twitch stars and Mixer staff to a Blizzard CM and a former SOE/NCsoft dev (the latter of whom did post an apology). Twitch itself has been accused of failing to act on behalf of victims.
I'm sick of being quiet. The CEO of @Twitch, @eshear, was asked in an All Hands meeting about partners using their platforms to abuse women- specifically using my case as an example. He chuckled, said "wow, the things that go on on our platform, can't really comment," & moved on.
— âš¡ Star âš¡ (@StarMightBeHigh) June 22, 2020
— Twitch (@Twitch) June 22, 2020
