Mixer, Microsoft's game streaming service, is giving streamers the option to get a cut of games which are sold to their viewers, in a system similar to the one Twitch operates. However, Microsoft’s take has a much wider scope in a bid to tempt users away from its big-name streaming rival.
Mixer Direct Purchase, which will begin to roll out shortly, lets a viewer purchase a game or piece of DLC right on the streamer’s channel page directly within Mixer.
Microsoft notes that this happens seamlessly with no need for any codes or activation process – the content is automatically added to the purchaser’s Xbox or Windows 10 game library for later downloading.
The streamer gets a slice of the revenue, with a 5% cut of every purchase.
Microsoft will also provide a number of promotional options for streamers, including the ability to promote the base game or a specific ‘deluxe’ edition or bundle for example, or specific pieces of downloadable content.
Broader base
Twitch already has a similar feature, which also gives a 5% cut, but it’s only available to partners and affiliate-level streamers, and can only be utilized with games from specific publishers.
The difference with Mixer’s take is that it will be open to anyone in the streaming world. However, it will only be available to partners initially, with the broader rollout happening in the ‘coming months.’ Furthermore, it will work with any game in the Microsoft Store.
As ever, this sort of competition has to be good news for those who are trying to make a living (or at least a few bucks) playing the streaming game, as more options are always a useful thing to have. And perhaps it could even push Twitch to look and see if it can make its own direct purchase scheme more compelling.
Of course, Mixer has a long way to go to catch up with Twitch, although it does already have a number of strengths as we’ve previously discussed, including extremely slick performance levels on the latency front, and multiplayer co-streaming to name a couple of virtues.
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Via Tom’s Hardware