Report: Morale among Microsoft's Mixer team is at an all-time low

OG_Thrills · Feb 28, 2020

However, what hasn't been reported is that over the last six months, there have been sixteen layoffs due to budget cuts which have shed roughly 25 percent of an already skeletal team and are causing feature releases to slip schedules.

If it's indeed true that Mixer is faced with staffing issues and low morale, only one thing can realistically fix it: investment. Microsoft has reportedly spent millions on key streamers like Ninja, but it doesn't seem to have made a particularly large impact on the service thus far. If the reports about Mixer being built up of a small skeleton crew are right, without proper investment in its own staffing, we're not sure how Microsoft expects to catch up to Twitch and YouTube.

More at the source

Report: Morale among Microsoft's Mixer team is at an all-time low

Let's hope Mixer recovers.

www.windowscentral.com

Video Games Are Dumb · Feb 28, 2020

I can't imagine why. Now to watch that clip of Ninja being incapable of cutting bread. 30 million dollars well spent!

That is slightly sad though. Streaming needs competition. But between Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, it's just giant companies slightly borrowing each others numbers, if that.

DixieDean82 · Feb 28, 2020

How MS must regret not buying Twitch when it was up for sale.

Dest · Feb 28, 2020

Morale could be super low because after spending millions to get exclusive deals on streamers it still hasn't boosted numbers. It's a bad sign when one of your cofounders leaves to go work for a company called fucking GamerGoo

Remark · Feb 28, 2020

I mean buying up streamers was never going to fix the problem.

When it comes to something like this it's something that's gonna take a while build up especially being a new site and not being able to use a pre-existing userbase like YouTube and Facebook.

Honestly don't know what they can do outside of close it down or try to ride it out.

ItWasMeantToBe19 · Feb 28, 2020

Mixer has great technology behind it, but the audience just isn't switching over from Twitch. Sad for the engineers who did great work building Mixer but I think it's a failure as a product.

roguesquirrel · Feb 28, 2020

i personally stopped using mixer when they removed the ability to stream to it directly from the PC's gamebar last fall

Goldenroad · Feb 28, 2020

I feel like they're making all the right moves, and as a person who rarely ever uses Twitch or Mixer, I find Mixer to be the better quality service, but it's going to be long uphill battle if they actually want to gain any kind of market share. Maybe if XBOX starts completely dominating console sales next gen some things could change, but I feel like most Twitch streamers are on PC anyway, so I just don't know if they can ever really make any real headway.

Maple · Feb 28, 2020

Ninja regularly pulls in less than 10,000 viewers on Mixer. His daily viewers have plummeted. Microsoft thought if they bought Ninja it would translate to buying his audience. Didn't come close to happening.

I haven't checked Shroud's numbers but I'm guessing they're the same.

I honestly hope Mixer can get its act together though. Twitch needs competition.

alias bean · Feb 28, 2020

Sad cause as far as performance is concerned it's a VASTLY superior platform. I can stream a Mixer stream on my phone at 1080P no problem, Twitch and YouTube I'm lucky if I can do 480P.

OG_Thrills · Feb 28, 2020

Reading through this article from WC the truly stunning part is when you remember how much money Microsoft poured into the service via the purchase of exclusive steamers.

Yuntu · Feb 28, 2020

I think there isn't really much MS can do for this. Sure they can invest for more marketing, a bigger team etc. - but if the internet doesn't care than a streaming platform doesn't really grow.

It needs a consistent and growing community that you cannot buy with money.

Atleast that's my perspective. Hope they proof me wrong.

Video Games Are Dumb · Feb 28, 2020

Maple said:
Ninja regularly pulls in less than 10,000 viewers on Mixer.

Fucking hell. I didn't know they were that low. Maybe that explains why he's been so pissy. Even if he's getting paid, he's always been kinda needy about attention.

Psamtik · Feb 28, 2020

Mixer has pretty fantastic 4K streaming, and is still my go-to for a lot of events, but it's up against an audience that says "pogchamp" in real life. I don't know how you crack mindshare like that.

Bitanator · Feb 28, 2020

ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Mixer has great technology behind it, but the audience just isn't switching over from Twitch. Sad for the engineers who did great work building Mixer but I think it's a failure as a product.

Sounds like a Zune situation, great product, nobody choosing it as their preferred device/service

ImaLawy3r · Feb 28, 2020

What fixes Mixer is something no one will like. It's buying the licenses to stream an entire game exclusively on the platform. Example: Fornite, or Apex, or COD, or FIFA, etc - can only be streamed on Mixer.

I know. You can pelt rocks at me now.

poklane · Feb 28, 2020

Maple said:
Ninja regularly pulls in less than 10,000 viewers on Mixer. His daily viewers have plummeted. Microsoft thought if they bought Ninja it would translate to buying his audience. Didn't come close to happening.

I haven't checked Shroud's numbers but I'm guessing they're the same.

I honestly hope Mixer can get its act together though. Twitch needs competition.

Shroud has completely tanked as well according to the website MixerStats https://mixerstats.com/channel/shroud
7 day average: 4.223
14 day average: 4.668
31 day average: 5.341
The money Microsoft has spend on exclusive streamers has been a complete waste.

packy17 · Feb 28, 2020

Video Games Are Dumb said:
Fucking hell. I didn't know they were that low. Maybe that explains why he's been so pissy. Even if he's getting paid, he's always been kinda needy about attention.

Shroud has seen a similar decline if I'm not mistaken. Went from 20-30k daily on twitch to 5-6k on Mixer.

Video Games Are Dumb · Feb 28, 2020

ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Mixer has great technology behind it, but the audience just isn't switching over from Twitch. Sad for the engineers who did great work building Mixer but I think it's a failure as a product.

I think it still has a serious shot if the Xbox Series X pulls in a lot of new users. Put mixer right up front and autoplaying without sound. Make the dashboard come to life and make mixer a core experience for Xbox owners. Couldn't be any worse that what the 360 and One dashboards turned into.

Snake__ · Feb 28, 2020

If Series X pulls ahead of PS5, Mixer numbers will skyrocket

Lobster Roll · Feb 28, 2020

As it turns out, people just want to watch the personality they like most - on Twitch.

That enormous deal they gave Ninja isn't working out because he doesn't have enough personality to get folks to completely hop platforms outside of his diehard fans (which if you're a diehard of Ninja, good luck to ya). Even if dozens of high-level streamers all jumped to Mixer, it wouldn't matter. Viewers are showing they'd rather browse Twitch and stay in that ecosystem. It's absolutely a "next player up" situation where the viewers will just crown a new cult of personality and hang out in that channel.

Hella · Feb 28, 2020

I don't really follow Twitch streamers at all, but I'm kinda surprised the big streamers never pulled over many of their viewers. I would have assumed the person was the draw, not the platform; but with how Twitch channels work like TV channels, I guess you'd just switch to something else, maybe?

Vinc · Feb 28, 2020

ImaLawy3r said:
What fixes Mixer is something no one will like. It's buying the licenses to stream an entire game exclusively on the platform. Example: Fornite, or Apex, or COD, or FIFA, etc - can only be streamed on Mixer.

I know. You can pelt rocks at me now.

I honestly think it's just a toooon of marketing spend.

Goldenroad · Feb 28, 2020

ImaLawy3r said:
What fixes Mixer is something no one will like. It's buying the licenses to stream an entire game exclusively on the platform. Example: Fornite, or Apex, or COD, or FIFA, etc - can only be streamed on Mixer.

I know. You can pelt rocks at me now.

I don't think that fixes Mixer as much as it hurts the viewership for those games.

iareharSon · Feb 28, 2020

I don't think there's much Microsoft can do. Twitch is a part of the zeitgeist at the moment, and its name is almost interchangeable with "video game streaming." It's tough to battle something like that.

LightKiosk · Feb 28, 2020

Much like the Windows Phone, Mixer tried to enter a market that has 2 very large players in it that have their viewer base comfortable exactly where they are.

Amazon was smart in that rather trying to build a competitor to Youtube or Twitch, they just went and bought Twitch.

Video Games Are Dumb · Feb 28, 2020

harSon said:
I don't think there's much Microsoft can do. Twitch is a part of the zeitgeist at the moment, and its name is almost interchangeable with "video game streaming." It's tough to battle something like that.

Well, the easiest way is to make stars. If you're someone who wants to stream, starting on any platform will probably pull in the same numbers for the first couple of weeks or months. They have to bring streamers in. If it's good, the audience will grow.

Deleted member 6730 · Feb 28, 2020

It's amazing how dumb the Ninja deal was, and yet people still thought it was "good for competition".

ImaLawy3r · Feb 28, 2020

Goldenroad said:
I don't think that fixes Mixer as much as it hurts the viewership for those games.

I don't think so, but I don't think we'll ever find out. If Fortnite or Apex signed an exclusive deal to be only visible on Mixer - people will go to Mixer to watch it if they cannot find it on Twitch or Youtube. If that happens long enough, you might be able to grow your userbase. Instead of paying Ninja millions of dollars, they should have signed a deal with Epic for 6 months being the exclusive streaming partner. That might have worked out a lot better.

rusty chrome · Feb 28, 2020

There's a compilation on YouTube of Ninja slipping the N word. It's pretty fucking bad. I'll never understand why Microsoft paid so much to have him when his popularity was already fading. He was never going to save Mixer.

packy17 · Feb 28, 2020

ImaLawy3r said:
What fixes Mixer is something no one will like. It's buying the licenses to stream an entire game exclusively on the platform. Example: Fornite, or Apex, or COD, or FIFA, etc - can only be streamed on Mixer.

I know. You can pelt rocks at me now.

No - this would just result in the same loss of interest as buying exclusivity for streamers. Some people will follow, but not enough.

The big nut that Mixer can't crack is Twitch Prime. It's just too good of a value and keeps people invested in the website and the service.

Something Microsoft *can* do - but isn't focusing on, for some reason - is drops. Special drop events result in huge viewer spikes on Twitch, and they're relatively easy to organize. Mixer already has the technology to make this happen because they do drops for their own games sometimes.

Jaded Alyx · Feb 28, 2020

roguesquirrel said:
i personally stopped using mixer when they removed the ability to stream to it directly from the PC's gamebar last fall

Well....that's dumb, why did they do that?

benzopil · Feb 28, 2020

Hella said:
I don't really follow Twitch streamers at all, but I'm kinda surprised the big streamers never pulled over many of their viewers. I would have assumed the person was the draw, not the platform; but with how Twitch channels work like TV channels, I guess you'd just switch to something else, maybe?

Those who watch only Ninja or Shroud and nobody else probably still watch them. If you are used to switching between streams it's just not fun to visit two different websites/apps.

Plus Twitch emotes are just too good. Aftwr all these years I'm not interested in a platform without them.

Hella · Feb 28, 2020

benzopil said:
Those who watch only Ninja or Shroud and nobody else probably still watch them. If you are used to switching between streams it's just not fun to visit two different websites/apps.

Plus Twitch emotes are just too good. Aftwr all these years I'm not interested in a platform without them.

Oh that's a great point, I forgot about the whole community aspect.

My time on Twitch, solely for Waypoint's streams, was a blast. If Waypoint still streamed regularly I could see myself getting drawn into the Twitch ecosystem.

Mauricio_Magus · Feb 28, 2020

I always forget that Mixer even exists.

Mr Swine · Feb 28, 2020

Spyder_Monkey said:
It's amazing how dumb the Ninja deal was, and yet people still thought it was "good for competition".

the steamers are getting paid, is that not good enough? Won't their numbers go back up if they started streaming again on Twitch?

Ada · Feb 28, 2020

Watch the video in the article damn that is bad. That is not how you run a town hall.

jon bones · Feb 28, 2020

makes sense, this whole streaming thing seems like a fad

packy17 · Feb 28, 2020

jon bones said:
makes sense, this whole streaming thing seems like a fad

Twitch isn't going anywhere but up.

DanteMenethil · Feb 28, 2020

Twitch """"""""""""""culture""""""""""""" is a big userbase retainer. People like their Kappas, Pepes and Pogchamps. I'll always appreciate Mixer for bringing in sub second stream delay. Twitch had 30 sec delay at that time but I think they caught up now.

Nabs · Feb 28, 2020

jon bones said:
makes sense, this whole streaming thing seems like a fad

Nah, it's not a fad. It's just not magic.

Edge · Feb 28, 2020

Their 2.0 update before they got Ninja was what lost me as a viewer. All these new sticker emoji mtx garbage broke the complete app on Xbox and it ran like ass.
Never really came back to it.

iareharSon · Feb 28, 2020

Video Games Are Dumb said:
Well, the easiest way is to make stars. If you're someone who wants to stream, starting on any platform will probably pull in the same numbers for the first couple of weeks or months. They have to bring streamers in. If it's good, the audience will grow.

I just don't think it'll work. I think Twitch is similar to Youtube in the sense that it's a one-stop for game related streaming. People are invested in the totality and centralized nature of the content, not necessarily any individual streamer(s). I think we're seeing that with the Streamers that Microsoft is putting under contract. Only the most die hard of fans are migrating with the streamer, and everyone else is more so glued to the platform itself.

Lobster Roll · Feb 28, 2020

jon bones said:
makes sense, this whole streaming thing seems like a fad

Uh, no lol

I've watched a streamer slowly climb from 10,000 subscribers per month to 15,000 per month to 20,000 per month present day playing nothing but ... get this ... Call of Duty Black Ops 4. If somebody can double their sub count from 10,000 to 20,000 playing an older generation of Call of Duty, it's not a fad platform. It's also been around for a long time and we're starting to see people add more personality, style, transitions, and variety to the presentation of their streams.

Calibro · Feb 28, 2020

Einchy · Feb 28, 2020

DanteMenethil said:
Twitch """"""""""""""culture""""""""""""" is a big userbase retainer. People like their Kappas, Pepes and Pogchamps. I'll always appreciate Mixer for bringing in sub second stream delay. Twitch had 30 sec delay at that time but I think they caught up now.

Give me my pepes or give me death.

Voytek · Feb 28, 2020

Never heard of Mixer before they bought Ninja and funny enough buying Ninja turned me off from ever using it. Is that unfair? Probably. But it is what it is.

Yerffej · Feb 28, 2020

I never even think about Mixer unless it's being touted around an MS event.

IDontBeatGames · Feb 28, 2020

There's a lot of information from Streamlabs & Newzoo Q4 Year in Review Live Streaming Industry Report but here's some more information regarding the streaming platform wars:

Twitch is still leading but experienced an overall decline in 2019.
The total hours watched on YouTube Gaming Live increased by 46% from Q1 to Q4 in 2019 and accounted for 27.6% market share in terms of hours watched for Q4, up 7% since last quarter.
Last quarter, YouTube Gaming Live was the only platform to see an increase in hours watched, streamed, and concurrent viewership.
Mixer more than doubled its number of hours watched and streamed when comparing 2019 to 2018.
Mixer has nearly the same number of unique channels streaming on the platform as Twitch. Mixer also has more than triple the number of unique channels compared to YouTube Gaming Live.
Riot Games was the most-watched publisher of 2019 across all platforms, beating Epic Games by 25.1 million hours
28.5% less Fortnite content was watched in 2019

Mixer

As we noted last quarter, based on the jump in hours streamed, Ninja's move to Mixer seemed to have encouraged many other streamers to start broadcasting on the platform. In Q4, Shroud announced he would also be exclusively streaming to Mixer. At the time, Shroud had over 6.9 million followers on Twitch, making him the third-most-followed channel behind Tfue and Ninja's now-inactive channel. While year-over-year growth for Mixer is still impressive, despite the recent exclusivity deal with Shroud, the numbers are lower quarter-over-quarter.

There was an 8.5% decrease in hours watched on the platform from Q4 to Q3. Despite this decrease, It's important to note that Mixer still more than doubled the number of hours watched when comparing the totals from 2019 to 2018. In Q3, the number of hours streamed on the platform more than doubled, thanks in part to Ninja's move. In Q4, Shroud's move seemed to help maintain this momentum. Quarter-over-quarter, the number of hours streamed decreased by 12.9%; however, 80.3 million hours of gaming video content were streamed to Mixer in 2019 vs just 35.2 million hours in 2018.

Similarly, compared to last quarter, we saw a major increase in the number of unique channels streaming to Mixer. In Q4, there was a 7.5% decrease from last quarter. There was a 78% increase in unique channels streaming to platform in 2019 compared to 2018.

The average concurrent viewers on the platform decreased by 8% from Q3 to Q4. There was a 55.1% increase in total concurrent viewers for 2019 compared to 2018.

Of course there's more in the linked text above, but here's some actual statistics regarding these platforms and comparing them. I wanted to bring this to light before people start comparing the platforms without having any evidence to back it up.

nekkid · Feb 28, 2020

Aren't they using the streaming tech from Beam (now Mixer) in xCloud?

Report: Morale among Microsoft's Mixer team is at an all-time low

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