Mixer Co-Founder: Microsoft Was Right to Shut Down Service

Mixer co-founder Matt Salsamendi said in an interview this weekend that he agrees with Microsoft’s decision to shut down the game streaming service. What he’s more concerned with are the people who relied on Mixer.

“It’s a big deal for the community that streams every day or relies as a business on what Mixer did,” he told Geekwire. “For a lot of people, there’s a lot of uncertainty. And so if there’s any sadness or frustration on my part, I wish that there was a way to get more of a heads up and notice out there. But at the end of the day, it’s hard to look back and be upset about where it ended up going.”

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Salsamendi co-founded a game streaming service called Beam with James Boehm in 2016 when he was just 18 years old. And after Microsoft acquired it later that year, the firm renamed Beam to Mixer in 2017. Microsoft hired Boehm and Salsamendi at that time, but both left the firm in October 2019.

The Geekwire story notes that Salsamendi “agrees with Microsoft’s decision, given the competitive challenges Mixer faced, and the investment it required.”

“The success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the service for them as quickly and broadly as possible,” Microsoft head of Xbox Phil Spencer wrote in the blog post announcing Mixer’s closure. “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 we want to deliver to gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.” Sadly, that platform is owned by Facebook, one of the most reviled companies in tech.

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Conversation 9 comments

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    29 June, 2020 - 8:44 am

    <p>The Facebook choice I understand, they had no other place to go. But still, terrible choice. I don’t see them succeeding either, this feels like a YouTube and Twitch world</p>

    • JacobTheDev

      Premium Member
      29 June, 2020 - 9:51 am

      <blockquote><a href="#550734"><em>In reply to madthinus:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>&gt; they had no other place to go</p><p><br></p><p>&gt; YouTube and Twitch</p><p><br></p><p>?</p>

      • Vladimir Carli

        Premium Member
        29 June, 2020 - 10:18 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#550749">In reply to Jacob-Bearce:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>if you look at the top streams page today, you will see that most channels have a big signpost stating that they are moving to Twitch with a link. Fortunately many mixer streamers are better than microsoft and rejected the move to facebook</p>

  • red77star

    29 June, 2020 - 9:10 am

    <p>I would not touch anything Facebook from 5000 miles away sort of speak. I knew Mixer has no future, unfortunately Mixed was used by lot of people who should not be there like girls streaming themselves with exposure of their cleavage and what not. Very sad state of the community.</p>

    • codymesh

      29 June, 2020 - 9:51 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#550739">In reply to red77star:</a></em></blockquote><p>iirc Mixer's community was far less "trashy" than Twitch's. I personally don't have a problem with either though. </p><p><br></p><p>But yeah, Facebook is not a good company. Most streamers and livestream viewership are from millennials (like me!) who have all but already abandoned Facebook.</p>

      • red77star

        29 June, 2020 - 1:24 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#550750">In reply to codymesh:</a></em></blockquote><p>I agree, Facebook is not good. I am not millennial and perhaps explains why I am not interested in streaming and any of that. I grew up playing games on Commodore 64 and Amiga platform but I understand the need for it and again Facebook is a horrible platform.</p>

  • glenn8878

    29 June, 2020 - 10:34 am

    <p>So this tells me Microsoft shouldn't have acquired a service that relies on social media except for the fact that Microsoft runs the cloud of social media. Whenever the going gets tough, Microsoft goes into hiding.</p>

  • tripleplayed

    29 June, 2020 - 2:40 pm

    <p>16 when he started Beam? Sold it to Microsoft at 18? Well… That certainly makes me feel like an absolute failure. </p>

  • Patrick3D

    29 June, 2020 - 2:48 pm

    <p>With Microsoft embracing Chromium and Android, it's confusing they didn't go with Youtube. Facebook must've written a bigger check. The fact they went with Facebook is reviling.</p>

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