Microsoft is doing its usual house cleaning ahead of its fiscal year financial results, which will be announced next week. Amongst the company’s staff-level changes are in the Mixer company. Microsoft will cut the original programming staff from its game streaming service.
Mixer was previously known as Beam, a game-streaming platform that Microsoft acquired in 2016. During the rebranding, Microsoft added plenty of new features to help viewers and streamers connect more seamlessly on Xbox.
Last year, Microsoft introduced the ability to broadcast everything that happens on their screen through Mixer, specifically for Xbox One. This means when streaming, Xbox One users can show off everything on their interface.
Microsoft fleshed out Mixer with interestingly tools, but the platform has struggled to gain traction. Whether this is Microsoft once again failing to properly push a product or simply the weight of market leader Switch being too much remains to be seen.
Amazon-owned Twitch is certainly the favored choice for streamers. Fortnite is the latest gaming giant and Twitch viewership on the game is around 6x higher than Mixer.
Final Lap
Heading into another fiscal year, Microsoft has decided to downgrade Mixer. The company says it may take the platform in a new direction, without saying what that means. Sadly for employees on the original programming team, they have been laid off.
While Microsoft says it will take the platform in a new direction, it does seem like this is the beginning of the end of Mixer. With the service underperforming, the company will either need to make drastic changes or simply kill it off entirely.
