Microsoft ends game streaming, teams up with Facebook

Microsoft said Monday it was throwing in the towel on its livestream gaming platform and teaming up with Facebook to better compete with rivals like Amazon-owned Twitch.

Microsoft Mixer will be shuttered on July 22, the tech giant said in a statement.


“It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences that Microsoft and Xbox want to deliver for gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform,” the Mixer team said.

The gamers will be encouraged to transition to Facebook Gaming, which has some 700 million people who play or watch games every month.

“We will work to transition the Mixer community over the next few weeks. Starting on July 22, all Mixer sites and apps will redirect users to Facebook Gaming,” said by Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, the gaming division of Microsoft,

Microsoft announced it was buying the livestream service Beam in August 2016 to bolster its effort to boost its ranks of people who play and watch games online.


But the service, renamed Mixer in 2017, struggled to gain traction against Twitch, Google-owned YouTube and Facebook Gaming.


Spencer said the move to shutter Mixer would allow Microsoft to focus on its other gaming efforts including “the world-class content being made by our 15 Xbox Game Studios, the evolution of Xbox Game Pass, the launch of Xbox Series X, and the global opportunity to play anywhere with Project xCloud,” referring to the cloud-based game service.

“Bringing that vision to life, for as many people as possible, will see us working with different partners, platforms, and communities for years to come,” Spencer added.

“It will also see us adjusting our strategy to best serve players wherever they gather daily, which includes the category of livestreaming.”

Agence France-Presse

American 16-year-old becomes solo Fortnite champ, winning $3M

NEW YORK — American Kyle Giersdorf, alias “Bugha,” became the first Fortnite world champion in the solo division, winning $3 million at age 16.

Originally from Pennsylvania, the young gamer took the lead in the first of six games and never looked back.

“It’s insane,” the young millionaire said after the final Sunday.

Aside from the second of six games, Bugha was remarkably consistent despite playing in the first world cup final, with millions of dollars on the line, in the Arthur Ashe stadium, where the US Open tennis tournament takes place.

“This morning he was worriless, energetic, having fun to make sure he wasn’t stressed at all,” his best friend Colin Bradley told AFP after the final.

In the game, users are dropped onto an island where they must search for weapons and other resources while eliminating other players — all while trying to stay alive.

A sense of placement, a talent for building, brilliant in close combat and foolproof cold blood — Bugha had it all in the final.

“He’s one of the smartest players. He knows when to attack, when not to attack, to stay high ground. He’s a strategic player,” Bradley said.US, internet, gaming, eSports, Fortnite, champion

Having a high position is often a decisive advantage, especially in the closing stages of the game, making it easier to shoot other players.

Epic Games — Fortnite’s creators — have spent a whopping $100 million on the inaugural event, including staging 10 weeks of qualifying culminating in this weekend’s tournament.

Every competitor is guaranteed to leave the competition with $50,000, making them the envy of the schoolyard when they return home.

On Saturday, gamers using the pseudonyms “Nyhrox” and “aqua” became the first Fortnite world champions in the duo division, winning $1.5 million each.

Fortnite, which is free to play, has 250 million users worldwide.

source: technology.inquirer.net

From high school drop-out to Korean gaming superstar

A high school drop-out dubbed the “Michael Jordan of eSports” has helped make South Korea a major power in video-gaming, and is now leading its push to be recognized by the mainstream.

The bespectacled, floppy-fringed “Faker”, real name Lee Sang-hyeok, is the world’s top “League of Legends” gamer and in hyper-wired Korea, he enjoys similar fame and fortune to top basketball or baseball players.

Faker, 22, will be one of the biggest stars at next month’s regional Olympics, the quadrennial Asian Games in Indonesia, where eSports will be held as a demonstration event for the first time.


It marks a step forward in gaming’s efforts to be considered a genuine sport, possibly even gaining a slot at the Olympics in the future, good news for global eSports powerhouses like South Korea.

The South enjoys ultra-fast broadband and a vibrant internet culture, and internet cafes armed with powerful high-end computers catering to school-age gamers can be found on many street corners.

“eSports player” consistently ranks among children’s most popular future jobs, coming eighth in an education ministry survey of elementary school pupils last year, higher than “scientist.”

Faker started playing video games in elementary school, and excelled at “League of Legends”, an online battle game introduced by Riot Games in 2009.

As he climbed the online LoL rankings speculation mounted about his identity, and he formed a team with friends to compete at amateur tournaments.

He dropped out of high school after being offered a job as a professional, making his debut in 2013 and thrashing top players one after another as he made his way to stardom.

eSports ‘fully embraced’

Korea’s eSports scene is reminiscent of Germany’s soccer culture, with grassroot talents nurtured from a young age, some of them making their way to amateur leagues and, after years of competition and effort, professional teams.


Many leading firms have their own eSports teams, with Faker believed to be paid at least 3 billion won ($2.6 million; P142 million) a year by his sponsor SK Telecom, the South’s top wireless operator.

“This is a country where eSports has been fully embraced as a type of sport among youth, and even college sports championships have eSport events,” said Kim Cheol-Hag, secretary general of the Korea eSports Association.

Last year, eSports was ranked the third most popular sport among South Koreans aged 15 to 29 after soccer and baseball, according to a survey by Nielsen Korea.

Multiple TV channels are dedicated to broadcasting eSports competitions, held at large football stadiums to roars from tens of thousands of fans, or sleek special arenas designed to showcase the games.

“Playing games became a full-time career in the South in the mid-2000s when many pro eSports teams were established, ahead of other countries,” Kim said.

With 25 million players, which is half the population, the South is the world’s sixth-biggest video game market.

But many South Korean players and coaches have been hired to work for top teams around the world, including China and the United States, eSports’ two biggest markets.

“Now the U.S. and China have the same systems and have caught up with us,” Kim told AFP. “But we have know-how and culture that has been accumulated for decades helping us stay at the top of the game”.

‘Improve your social standing’

South Korea’s obsession with video games dates back to the 1990s when Starcraft, a U.S, science fiction strategy game, enjoyed huge popularity, so much so that the South accounted for more than half its worldwide sales.

Nowadays, teenagers hoping to become professional players, or popular among their game-crazed peers, flock to a growing number of private, after-hours schools coaching them how to play video games better.

A typical “game academy” features a rows of teenagers or men in their 20s playing “Overwatch” or “League of Legends”, with a coach, usually a former pro, watching their performances and suggesting better moves.

“If you become a good gamer, it can improve your social standing and help you make more friends,” game academy student Kim Han-eol told Seoul’s YTN news channel.

Six other players will accompany Faker to Indonesia next month to compete.

“The Asian Games is not an event only watched by gamers but something watched by the whole nation,” Faker told reporters. “I will win the game no matter what.” JB

source: technology.inquirer.net