Microsoft boss Phil Spencer revealed earlier this month that he has no regrets about Mixer, the streaming service that will soon be shutting down and shuttering its over to Facebook Gaming. Mixer was originally conceived as a viable alternative to Twitch that struggled to gain traction before Microsoft began throwing large amounts of money at it, culminating in a huge summer reveal last year that saw Twitch megastar Ninja announce he was making Mixer his permanent home.
Naturally, many believed the superstardom that Ninja brought to the platform would help legitimize Mixer, which offered a number of streaming quality-of-life improvements over Amazon’s Twitch service and was still backed by a massive company in Microsoft. In some respects, the move succeeded – it made streaming as a whole appear much more legitimate to those unfamiliar with its platforms, and also spurred a number of other high-profile moves among streaming platforms, with Shroud joining Ninja on Mixer while others, like CouRage, went to YouTube Gaming. Unfortunately, beyond shining a light on the fact that content creators needed better contracts and more protection, Mixer didn’t manage to achieve much more than it had prior to signing Ninja, and Microsoft announced the platform would be getting shut down earlier this summer.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Spencer acknowledged that he felt disappointed by Mixer’s closure, but also made sure to state he did not regret Microsoft’s attempt to make the project work. While Mixer didn’t work out as one of the pillars of Microsoft’s games strategy, it did manage to make a name for itself in the end, and will continue to live on in spirit through Facebook Gaming. Spencer had this to say on the closure of Mixer:
“I don’t have regrets. You make decision with the best information you have at the time, you apply your best effort, and we’re in a creative industry. We are in a hits-driven industry. And if we get into this space that we get afraid of disappointment that we won’t achieve what we’re trying to achieve as an organisation…I think it’s fundamental to us that we’re not afraid of trying things that might not work.”
It’s also interesting to note that Spencer referred to the games industry as a “hits-driven business,” especially in the context of Mixer’s closure. While Mixer’s platform was perfectly sound and it had some big-name streamers before it was shut down, it wasn’t originally a hit – something that can be fatal in games. No Man’s Sky, despite being a largely different game in 2020 when compared to its trouble launch, has dramatically improved most of its offerings but is only now gaining more popularity and attention, having had to struggle with negative labels well past when they actually applied. It’s possible consumer opinion being difficult to change beyond first impressions also played a key role in the demise of Mixer.
Of course, it’s not like Spencer could really say anything differently in public. Whether or not he actually regrets Microsoft’s attempt to make Mixer work is something critics will never likely discover, but on the surface, Spencer remains steadfast in his belief that it’s better to try something new and fail rather than remain stagnant. It’s a belief that seems to characterize some of what Xbox Series X is trying to do with cross-gen support and other features, and it’s a philosophy that saw Mixer swing for the fences – but ultimately miss.
