It’s been one year since Microsoft rebranded Beam, the game-streaming service it bought in 2016, as Mixer, and it is marking the anniversary with the roll out of a redesign of its desktop and mobile sites, new tools to make the experience more interactive and a deeper dive into eSports.
A new feature called MixPlay gives developers new tools to create more interactive streaming experiences. It enables “experiences on top of streams, in panels on the side of video, as widgets around video or as free-floating overlays,” according to a Mixer blog post by co-founder James Boehm.
Mixer used the new Share Controller feature as an example of what MixPlay can do. Anyone broadcasting from an Xbox One can share their controller with Mixer viewers, giving them a fully virtual controller to play along with the streamer.
Mixer didn’t give an update on how many users it has today, repeating the news of 10 million monthly active users shared earlier this year. Mixer says its audience is four times the size it was a year ago, with five times as many streams watched.
A new desktop and mobile site is starting to roll out today, first to Mixer Pro users. Mixer says the revamp is coming in waves, and all users will see the updated site by early summer.
Looking ahead, Mixer is diving deeper into eSports. A new PlayStation 4 league of the battle arena game Smite will be streamed exclusively on Mixer, an interesting turn of events given its parent company’s competition with PlayStation. Mixer will also carry more than 15,000 hours of programming from top eSports company ESL, including high level matches in the most popular games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Dota 2.
