San Francisco (AFP)

Microsoft throws in the towel and closes its video game streaming platform Mixer, leaving the field open to the giant of the sector Twitch and to its two rivals, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming, designated as the successor of Mixer.

The IT giant's subsidiary has announced that it will cut power on July 22, but today Mixer's partners and "streamers" (players and content creators) will begin to migrate to the competing service Facebook Gaming.

"We started very far behind, in terms of monthly active users on Mixer, compared to the heavyweights of the sector," explained Phil Spencer, the game manager of Microsoft, in an interview with The Verge, a news site technological.

This is especially true against Twitch, which is part of the Amazon team, leading this growing sector, with more than 60% market share last year, according to StreamElements, a platform for broadcasters who compile figures from the specialized firm Arsenal.gg.

Twitch popularized the spread of video games, which allows fans to watch games like others attend football games, with the added social aspect: players comment on their actions live and spectators interact on "chats "in parallel, forcefully emoticons.

The video game streaming market represented more than $ 5 billion in revenue in 2019, according to Roundhill.

- Bribing is not playing -

Twitch has also diversified into concerts and live shows - a major asset in times of pandemics and containment, when tens of millions of people confined to their homes sought to kill boredom and distract themselves by all means.

In April, the number of hours viewed on Twitch (all content combined) jumped 48% in one month (100% in one year), to 1.7 billion, according to StreamElements.

By comparison, YouTube Gaming reached 461 million hours (+ 65% in one year), followed by Facebook Gaming (291 million, + 238%) and Mixer: 37 million hours, up by ... 0, 2%.

The Microsoft platform had tried to go up the slope by taking over stars like Ninja or Shroud.

The transfer of Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and his millions of fans had sounded in the fall as a great victory for Mixer, although expensive: contracts for this kind of stars easily reach $ 20 million according to estimates which have circulated in the American press.

But the investment was in vain. Mixer did not allow Microsoft to reach its target of 2 billion players on xCloud (the streaming of games linked to the xBox universe, the group's video games subsidiary).

- Where will Ninja go? -

"When we think of xCloud and the opportunity to have 2 billion players access to games, we know that it is crucial that our services reach a large audience. Facebook clearly offers this to us," said Phil Spencer.

Microsoft had to make a choice: sell, close altogether or invest even more without guarantee of being able to really change scale.

"It was not so much a return on sale, but to find the best partner for the community and the streamers," says Spencer.

Thanks to the launch of its game application and tournaments with celebrities, Facebook Gaming has become a third major player in this market. Between March and April, the platform jumped 72% in terms of hours viewed.

Fans are now eagerly awaiting the decision of their stars, free to join the platform of their choice.

Some were already celebrating on Twitter a possible return of Ninja on Twitch, but the young American was satisfied with a neutral statement: "I love my community and what we have built on Mixer. I have decisions to make and I will think of you all by taking them. "

© 2020 AFP