It wasn’t long ago that Twitch seemed to almost be synonymous with “video game streaming.” But as with anything successful, there’s always bound to be others that want to dip their feet into the space and the largest of such feet was certainly Microsoft. In 2016, the hardware and software giant acquired startup streaming service Beam. Almost immediately, the team was integrated into the Xbox and Windows 10 brand before soon being re-branded as Mixer.

During this time, it was clear Microsoft had lofty ambitions for the service and continued to promote it and innovate it with new features. Its intentions to challenge Twitch became clear in July 2019 when one of the most popular video game streamers, Ninja, announced that he would move from Twitch to Mixer as an exclusive streamer. While having a streamer with over fourteen million followers was a major coup for the service, Microsoft soon doubled down and brought on another highly-popular streamer with Shroud in October, followed soon by KingGothalion.

Other than the departure of co-founders Boehm and Salsamendi in October, there hasn’t been much talk of struggles with the streaming platform until today, when Microsoft suddenly announced that they were closing the service and shifting to using Facebook Gaming.

The reason for the move was said to stem from the company realizing it was impossible to have the time needed to grow the community to the scale they want to deliver to gamers now.

Instead of outright throwing in the towel, Microsoft will be partnering with Facebook to transition to their service Facebook Gaming. To serve this transition, Mixer Partners will be granted partner status with Facebook Gaming, streamers participating in the Mixer monetization program will be granted eligibility for the Facebook Gaming Level Up Program, viewers with outstanding Ember valances or subscriptions will receive an Xbox Gift Card, among other moves.

The Mixer service will run for another month until July 22 upon which time the service will redirect to Facebook.

As for some of the exclusive major streamers the platform had on their roster, Ninja has this afternoon stated that “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.”

KingGothalion seemed to indicate surprise in the decision, tweeting “Mixer Partners. Choose where the best fit is for you. This is such an impossible situation for most.” while Shroud thus far hasn’t made a public comment.