Moving
on upThis will come as great news for
Xbox owners that regularly watch
Ninja’s broadcasts as Mixer is natively
integrated into the Xbox experience.
The streaming service will give more
fans an opportunity to interact with
Ninja’s livestreams in a way that
they might not have been able to
previously. For example, Mixer allows
for a high level of connectivity
between streamers and viewers,
where the streamer can offer viewers
certain controls to affect gameplay
or story choices. Mixer also easily
enables up to four users to broadcast
simultaneously, so if you’re playing
a four-player co-op game you can
broadcast each player’s perspective.Sneaky move
Ninja has already conquered Twitch
by being its most followed user with
almost 15 million fans, a large chunk
of which are expected to migrate over
to Mixer to keep up with the streamer’s
content. The reaction so far from
Ninja’s fanbase seems to be mixed, to
say the least, but it will be interesting
to see how this move will affect not
only both Twitch and Mixer platforms
but Ninja’s popularity, too.
Apart from the exclusivity to the
platform, at the time of writing no
details on the terms have been
released. But it’s safe to say that
this move will no doubt help improve
Mixer’s public perception and give its
popularity a much-needed bump. QNinja mixes
things up
Streaming superstar Ninja surprises everyone
by moving to Microsoft’s Mixer service with an
exclusive deal
STREAM
TEAMEarlier this month, popular videogame
livestreamer Richard Tyler ‘Ninja’
Blevins made the bombshell
announcement that he has signed
an exclusive deal with Microsoft’s
very own livestreaming service Mixer,
which sees him moving away from
creating content on Amazon’s Twitch
and over to its rival.
The announcement was made via a
semi-spoof press panel in which the
‘press’ gave a mix of shocked gasps
and cheers to the news, presumably
to simulate the kind of reaction his
real audience would have. Ninja
himself played different members of
the press while sporting a variety of
outfits and disguises and, although
this was done in a tongue-in-cheek
manner, the content creator used
this chance to answer some of the
questions people might want to
raise and put some of their worries
to bed. “It’s the same me, just a
different platform,” he explains. “I
think this is a really good chance to
get back in touch with my roots, and
really remember why I fell in love with
streaming in the first place.”
It’s hard not to see the move as
almost poetic, as Ninja started out
playing Halo 3 competitively and now
he’s working with a Microsoft-owned
platform. We wouldn’t be surprised
if he goes all-in on multiplayer when
Halo Infinite arrives, after all there
was a Master Chief shaped Easter egg
within his video announcement.Granted Mixer has
only been around a
few short years, but it
currently trails behind
the likes of Twitch
and YouTube Gaming.
It has, however –
according to
Streamlabs’ quarterly
report – been moving
in a positive direction,
with a 266 per cent
increase of hours
watched year on year.
With Ninja now on
board, this is only
going to improve.
NINJA MOVES TO MIXER INSIDER
THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 009