Streaming Service Mixer Acquires Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, Joins Ninja in Exclusivity Deal

[jiyeon]

Source: The Verge

 

Michael Grzesiek, known as Shroud, has joined Mixer in an exclusive deal, leaving Twitch in favor of the new streaming service.

Shroud will be joining fellow former Twitch megastar Ninja in the Mixer exclusivity deal.

 

Quote

Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek is the latest Twitch megastar to abandon the Amazon-owned streaming service in favor of Microsoft’s Mixer platform.

 

Grzesiek, a former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, made his announcement on Twitter today. His first stream is today at 8pm ET. He jokes in the announcement video that he’s “making moves,” following in the same footsteps as another popular streamer, Ninja.

 

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins left his home on Twitch in August to stream exclusively on Mixer earlier this year, and shook the streaming industry to its core. Both Grzesiek and Blevins are two of the gaming world’s most watched streamers, and both came up through Twitch after retiring from professional play. (Ninja was a former Halo pro before transitioning to battle royale games.) Blevins commented on Grzesiek’s move on Twitter, calling it a “massive move for the platform and the streaming industry.”

 

In the Verge article in source, the Verge has reported that the reasoning behind Ninja's original move was due to Ninja and Twitch's disconnect and the inability for Twitch to grow his 'Ninja' brand. Thus, he moved to Mixer to expand upon his growth, citing that money was the last thing on his mind.

 

Quote

Whether it’s due to financial deals — reports suggested that Blevins signed an impressive contract with Microsoft to stream exclusively on Mixer — or growing concern over burnout and lingering issues on Twitch, streamers are looking elsewhere.

Ninja’s manager and wife, Jessica Blevins, told Business Insider earlier this year that he decided to leave Twitch because of the company’s inability to work with them on building out the “Ninja” brand.

 

“Money was the last thing on our mind,” she said. “It’s like, they don’t even know what went on behind the scenes and how hard we tried to make that deal work — and then how amazing Microsoft was for us.”

 

Shroud joining Ninja over on Mixer is a clear sign that Twitch is beginning to lose their touch. I can't see any other reason behind Shroud with his huge Twitch fanbase moving over to Mixer beside what Ninja quoted regarding his own move from Twitch.

Makes me wonder if anybody is next to join Shroud and Ninja over on Mixer, and for what reasons. Also since Shroud is supposed to be featuring in a high refresh rate monitor video sometime later this year (or next?) on Linus Tech Tips, that he'll talk about it, or link to his Mixer instead of Twitch.

[LukeSavenije]

honestly, i think there's money involved

 

and i think this'll have the same effect as the introduction of streaming services: it kills it because you have too many options, not too little

[Kukielka]

7 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

honestly, i think there's money involved

No shit, sherlock.

[Unixsystem]

21 minutes ago, sowon said:

 I can't see any other reason behind Shroud with his huge Twitch fanbase moving over to Mixer beside what Ninja quoted regarding his own move from Twitch.

You know those big burlap sacks with the giant dollar sign on the side? 

 

I bet they were involved. 

[Arika]

it's like the whole steam/EGS thing all over again

[Fnige]

1 hour ago, Arika S said:

it's like the whole steam/EGS thing all over again

minus the feature set, or is Mixer missing a whole lot of features

[xAcid9]

2 hours ago, SlimyPython said:

minus the feature set, or is Mixer missing a whole lot of features

I think Mixer have similar feature or slightly better. Excluding 3rd party BTTV/FFZ integration.

[Fnige]

8 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

3rd party BTTV/FFZ integration

explain?

[xAcid9]

On 10/25/2019 at 11:20 AM, SlimyPython said:

explain?

BetterTwitchTV (BTTV) and FrankerFaceZ (FFZ) is 3rd party site that host 3rd party emotes integration for TwitchTV which you can enable through their browser extension. You can have animated emotes(gif) with BTTV/FFZ which Twitch doesn't offer and also extra emotes for your channel.

[suicidalfranco]

frankly i don't like mixer (cause MS) but there is a need for a competitor or an alternative to twitch specially now that twitch seems, from my point of view in that past two years, so hellbent in becoming a soft-core version of chaturbate.

Would be nice to regain one place that is only gaming focused

[Suika]

And just like that, the number of good streamers on Mixer has doubled.

[Roswell]

It will be interesting to see how it plays out over time. It's not like it usually with a smaller innovative company taking share from the mega corp or the big company bullying out the little one. 

 

Microsoft has a stupid amount of money to play with, as does Amazon.

[jagdtigger]

8 hours ago, sowon said:

exclusive deal

So basically they bribed them, i have to wonder why the authorities turn a blind eye over this.....

[kirashi]

Sweet, that's one less notification in my inbox when Shroud goes live. Don't get me wrong - I actually enjoy Mike's antics, but I'm not about to sign up for yet another streaming service just to watch people. I already have an overload of services I'm signed up for; I don't need another one.

[Paranoid Kami]

Just checked Mixer and both games I play, Guild Wars 2 and Dawn of War 2, have absolutely zero viewers. It's bad for old games.

[xAcid9]

23 minutes ago, Paranoid Kami said:

Guild Wars 2

I just followed an old dude playing GW2 on Mixer.

[Thaldor]

3 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

frankly i don't like mixer (cause MS) but there is a need for a competitor or an alternative to twitch specially now that twitch seems, from my point of view in that past two years, so hellbent in becoming a soft-core version of chaturbate.

Would be nice to regain one place that is only gaming focused

Has Twitch ever been something else than a soft-core chaturbate? Like I remember the time you fell asleep for few minutes or drank the hardests drug ever and got intoxiated by coffee and got banned while it was completely ok to just roll some video, seem like playing and show a little ta-tas ("accidentaly" when wearing just "normal cozy" clothes) and collect the money away.

[Rupe]

Obviously in their position you would take a large enough pay check to move over. But Ninjas manager and wife is clearly not being honest about their motive when she says "he decided to leave Twitch because of the company’s inability to work with them on building out the “Ninja” brand.".

Moving to Mixer is only bad for their brand because at the end of the day what will maintain the brand is high viewership and moving to mixer is a sure way to lower ones viewership. 

Although Shroud was my favorite Twitch streamer I don't expect I will be watching him as much now he has moved as I do enjoy Stream hopping and all my favorite streamers are on twitch.

Perhaps this gamble will pay off for Mixer and they will be a legitimate competitor to twitch, although if I had to put money on it I doubt it and all they would've achieved is slightly damaging Twitch for both Twitch and the audience

[jasonvp]

3 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

So basically they bribed them, i have to wonder why the authorities turn a blind eye over this.....

How is this bribery in any form?  What would "the authorities" look into, exactly?

[jagdtigger]

54 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

How is this bribery in any form?

Do you think they switched just because MS asked them to do so?

[yolosnail]

10 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Do you think they switched just because MS asked them to do so?

By that logic anyone who takes any sponsorship is being bribed into talking about a certain product, or you're being bribed into working for a company because they asked you to work there!

[jagdtigger]

1 minute ago, yolosnail said:

anyone who takes any sponsorship

Depends on how it is handled. If its the kind where you cant say anything negtive about it then yes. It is bribing.

 

2 minutes ago, yolosnail said:

because they asked you to work there

Pretty dumb analogy, cant be compared  in any way.

[spartaman64]

5 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

So basically they bribed them, i have to wonder why the authorities turn a blind eye over this.....

Its not like they are judges or police or something. Bribing regular people to do stuff, also called paying them, is legal otherwise all businesses will close.

[Sauron]

14 hours ago, sowon said:

he moved to Mixer to expand upon his growth, citing that money was the last thing on his mind.

I'm sorry, what's the difference between wanting "more growth" and "more money" in this case?

3 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Depends on how it is handled. If its the kind where you cant say anything negtive about it then yes. It is bribing.

Bribery is specifically referred to paying people in a position of institutional power in exchange for preferential treatment. That's not what this is. At worst this is an undisclosed advertisement deal, which isn't great but is better than bribery.

[jasonvp]

1 hour ago, jagdtigger said:

Do you think they switched just because MS asked them to do so?

I'm not really sure how you came to believe this is "bribery".  They're being employed by Microsoft.  Just like the surge of streamers that moved to Facebook over the past year or so: they're under contract with Facebook to stream on their service in return for pay.  There's no "depends on how it's handled" at all.  It's simple contract employment, full of the usual taxation requirements, etc.