Microsoft wants to switch Twitch users to its own Mixer platform, and it’s open to bringing the app to PlayStation if that will help its cause. For those of you who don’t know, the streaming site formerly known as Beam is basically an alternative to more popular games broadcasting destinations – it’s the Bing of video games telecasting.
While people seem pretty excited about some of the features that the Redmond firm is bringing to this new foray, it’s going to have an uphill struggle against giants such as Twitch and YouTube. We threw our hat into the Mixer last night to see what it’s all about, and there was a guy opening Overwatch loot boxes in front of an audience of about 200 people. And that was about the most exciting thing going down.
Still, we honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this did end up on the PS4 at some point. Microsoft seems fairly platform agnostic these days, and it’s going to need all of the help it can get if it has any chance of making Mixer a success. Are you looking for an alternative to Twitch? Please explain why in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 13
well that explains why Twitch Streaming is so annoying to do on XB1 now
Sony would say no citing "Not good consumer value" despite being "for the players" and giving options, and MS would leverage it against them saying we are willjng they arent.
And then the fighting continues ad nauseum until one of them collapses with their next generation system falling out the gate due to dodgy PR.
And the rest of us will be sat wondering why we wanted a digital only system as that leaves Sony a monopoly on their platform and prices skyrocket.
Sony will be Sony. They wont let anyone in if it impacts their monopoly on the PS4 when it comes to services. You know Rainway wont because PS Now. You know Twitch and YouTube are there because Sony doesnt have a live service of its own (yet) and those brands are enormous.
If it can cut into their pie, it wont happen ever. Even EA gets turned down. From a profiteering point it makes sense.
From a PR point its "anti-consumer" or is that only other companies these days?
@BLP_Software I'm staying on team physical discs until a) trade ins can happen digitally and b) they learn how to permanently cut prices better on the online store.
@BLP_Software I guess you haven't seen the PSN sales, the PS4 is outselling in both Software & Hardware 2-1 yet i don't see Sony abusing there sales advantage.
@ztpayne7 100% with you there, an all digital future gives too much power to the publishers.
@BLP_software You do know that this is the same Sony that killed it's own Music Unlimited service in favour of Spotify right? If it makes sense for Sony they'll be open to it but right now what's the point with Twitch and YouTube already there.
@adf86 well and I just got a psvr. I wouldn't have had money for any games but I made some trade ins and got 4 vr games for free. I like having that leverage. That also allowed me to jump the gun on persona (which I also got free) in April along with coupons.
I have no interest in watching 'gamers' play games instead of actually playing myself. Therefore I don't have any interest in Twitch. Mixer has a bit more to it than that though and I undersand MS will be using it to show their E3 broadcast in 4k (and HDR? on XB1s). Its supposed to be better than twitch for streamers to interact with their audience too. This interactivity ranges from bringing sound effects into the game or voting on what actions the player should take or what weapons they should use. Interaction is rewarded and further interaction options can be unlocked.
Mixer is also extremely low latency, meaning that interaction between streamers and viewers is almost instantaneous. Mixer also has an interesting new feature that allows for multiplayer co-streaming. Now, up to four streamers who are playing the same multiplayer game can stream simultaneously on one page and viewers can easily swap between them.
Of course being new and less established, its not as well populated - at least not yet. For streamers though, it could be a great time to get noticed with so little competition comparatively...
@BAMozzy All of those features are great but, like you say, if no one's using it... I do agree that it might be a good venue for someone to get attention where there's less competition, but I just can't see this taking off personally.
YouTube is a giant of video content and its own Twitch style thing has struggled to really take off.
@get2sammyb Of course its in competition with much more well known and established services but a lot of youtubers are very unhappy with their new rules - especially around advertising and what content can be monetised. WW2 for example can't and that effects the new CoD. Twitch has issues too.
Maybe if 'Mixer' can take off and be very easy for streamers and include Playstation gamers too, if it also has 4k HDR quality streams, better financial rewards for streamers and much better interaction, it could be the choice of gamers for the new generation. No doubt it will be on Win10 PCs and easy for those gamers as well as Xbox and with Youtube making it difficult for streamers and content makers to get their content out there, Mixer might just have arrived at the right time. I know it would need to include Playstation in some way as that is a large portion of the gaming community.
Anything that relies on Public to build up the community is always a risk. You wouldn't want to be taking on Facebook at doing what Facebook does unless it really had something that Facebook doesn't or a big incentive to switch. Mixer is no different but who knows. If you want to get into streaming, Mixer could be a good platform rather than struggle against the big names on other formats. I expect MS will push it for PC as well as Xbox.
Youtube struggled, not just because of Twitch but also because it has so much other content, so many other sectors - not just gaming.
@ztpayne7 Agreed, it's ridiculous sometimes how much cheaper a physical retail version can be in comparison to PSN version.
I don't see myself switching to digital until they stop releasing Discs forever.
Beam/Mixer is ok but you do not get the viewers when you stream there so its pointless. Beam has been around for years and if it is not getting the viewers now it never will. Until you get the big streamers like Lirik etc moving then its not going to take viewers away from Twitch.
Wow a show opening loot boxes is the most viewed.
Wtf has happened to my hobby?
@BAMozzy most the things you mention are already on other platforms. The multiplayer streaming for example, there is a site where you put in the twitch usernames and it will display up to 4 on screen at once, it has its own chat there and I think you can sync the gameplay so they all show at the correct timing (not quite sure if the last thing is a thing or something coming)
Also, twitch is way more than just gaming shows - literally every big developer and publisher uses twitch to live stream their games, events and news. E3 is streamed all over it and they let people stream big events like E3 themselves with their comentary over it live as it happens. A lot of youtubers do that as it gets their viewers to watch it and react with them live.
They also have other sections on twitch for gameshows, specials (like showing all power rangers and bob Ross shows), music (you can stream the recording and creation of music), art (streaming painting/drawing), talk shows (podcasts etc) and a lot more. It's just got the image of gaming only because that was it first main use.
Personally, I don't see this coming to PlayStation, the interactions are supposedly annoying as it means while you're playing the viewers can pretty much spam you with sounds and images ever 10-30 seconds each - which isn't fun. And the user interaction to pick things - that's what chat bots, moderators, votes and talking to the audience is for.
There is nothing new with beam that isn't in youtube or twitch - MS just want to keep a large chunk of the donations and subscriptions that are obtained by their users.
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