News Mixer is closing down in July

Yup, never actually heard of it.

* shrugs shoulders *

 

Well that was a good way to burn probably >$100 million in cash for virtually zero return. The whole concept of competing with Twitch with no existing community was always doomed. It was like trying to start a social media platform to compete with Facebook or a word processor to compete with MS Word.

 

Kind of a shame. Beam (which later was renamed to Mixer after MS acquired it) was minimally encrusted with crud.

 

I still have no comprehension of why people want to watch other people playing games. However, I also don't understand why people like watching sport either so I realise my brain just isn't wired for that kind of thing.

 

So MS did a MS. Had a decent thing, sat on their arse with it, removed windows streaming functionality to it via the xbox app - the easiest way to stream on windows - then closed it because they didn't know why they weren't the best and decided to let a 3rd party take over the job.

 

Apparently both Ninja and Shroud refused to sign their contract over to Facebook and thus received full pay-outs. MS effectively had to pay them the remainder of whatever the contract was worth.

Rumour has it that Shroud will go pro in Valorant, while both streamers are supposed to return to Twitch.

 

I hope that's true, I know nothing about either streamer but running a tech giant for millions and millions is the stuff of dreams.

 

I feel the same, it does nothing for me.

 

i didn't get why either till one day when my kids pissed the mrs off enough that she removed all the consoles and gaming related int he house one day. 9 whole weeks my kids just watched twitch streams of the recent during that time period games they were missing out on.
only good thing that came out of it was some of the 80s/90s games on streamer kep mentioning as such they have begun to play "old" games like syndicate turrican metal slug etc

 

For me it's very similar to tuning into a podcast where I'm just listening to the person streaming whilst glancing at the game from time to time to see if they're doing anything interesting.
Usually I'll have a stream running on my second monitor whilst I do other things so I'll maybe be giving them a 10th of my attention.

 

E-sports has a massive following - I know people who can spend all day watching CSGO matches between pro teams. One of my staff will actually book time off to watch a tournament. It's no different to watching the footie or F1 on telly but a lot of folk are still a bit snobby about it or dismiss people who like it as weird.

I don't watch a lot of live streams, but I often watch replays of World of Warships matches on youtube, to better understand tactics and positioning during a match.

 

CSGO Majors can be some of the most intense viewing going even to people with only a passing knowledge of the game.

Unlike LOL or DOTA which I can't watch to save my life as its all just a mess of particle effects, it has a simple visual style that's intuitive to understand (shoot all the other team or defuse a bomb to win). It's also easy to understand whose winning or losing at any given time (most rounds is winning). I would much rather watch a CSGO match than most sports tournaments but rarely find the time (for either!)

 

Definitely agree with that. A last-gasp rounds clutch or defuse to win a match or even title is... well, intense.

 

I just don't find it entertaining and, when I have looked at videos to find out how to do something, I find the habit of many of constantly switching viewing angles, very annoying. Besides which, I would rather be playing the game myself, notwithstanding I haven't played anything for several weeks.

 

Maybe you're not part of the target audience then.

I have always watched a lot of football (played it myself on amateur level for 14 years, longer if you count just kicking about in a park) and watching a stream of CS or Quake is essentially the same.

 

Totally agree but I can't understand people wanting to watch 'normal' sport either! I know that's my own abnormality though, I just couldn't give a toss who wins so it doesn't hold my interest. Same with any kind of 'talent' program; I can watch an episode of Great British Bake Off, for example, but I often turn off before the end because I'm not interested in what the judges think or who wins

 

I suspect you are right!