The subscription wars are upon us, it seems, as so many of these services are popping up at the moment, it already feels damn near impossible to keep up with it all. On the Xbox side of things, you have Game Pass, something that’s become a key part of their gaming business. Microsoft also owns Mixer, a streaming platform that just had some big news with the exclusive signing of famous streamer Ninja. Since gaming and streaming go hand-in-hand, could these two things be colliding soon? According to Phil Spencer, it’s more than possible.

On his official Twitter, Spencer was asked if we could be seeing a situation similar to Twitch Prime, where you can use it to earn in-game items or credit, in Mixer for Game Pass titles (and vice versa). While he didn’t commit to anything, he did say his team has been thinking about ways to mix the two services for awhile, and complimented the question as a good idea.

It makes sense- the two things go so hand-in-hand, and Twitch has been doing similar things its their Prime service already. Don’t be too surprised if we see the two Microsoft services mingling in some way sooner rather than later.

We are always listening and learning. Lot's of people have suggested we find some connection between XGPU and Mixer subs which makes a ton of sense, good ideas.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) August 7, 2019

Rumours that Playground Games is working on a new Fable continue to gain ground. It seems the game has appeared as a game on Mixer, a live-streaming platform for Windows 10 and Xbox One owned by Microsoft. Reddit user snow9876 posted a screenshot of the game’s name right under Fable 1, 2, and 3.

While that isn’t solid confirmation that Fable 4 is coming, it doesn’t seem to be a custom game name either. Regardless, we do know Playground Games is working on a new “triple A open world action RPG”, having opened a new studio and hired for numerous positions on the same. Rumours about Fable 4 being in development for Xbox One has also been doing the rounds since January 2018.

An announcement at E3 2019 wouldn’t be too far-fetched, especially since Playground Games was acquired by Microsoft last year. Taking place on June 9th, Microsoft’s E3 2019 presser will apparently be its longest ever. A number of titles, like Halo Infinite, Cyberpunk 2077, and FromSoftware’s next game are rumoured to appear. Stay tuned to see if Fable 4 makes that list or not.

Those lucky enough to be on the Xbox Insider program that get to check out early versions of upcoming firmware updates for Microsoft’s systems have found that a new update has been made to the Xbox One’s streaming capabilities, one that greatly resembles the Share Play abilities seen on PlayStation 4.

Taking advantage of Xbox’s Mixer.com streaming, players will be able to pass control of their game to anyone watching them play on the PC, where they will be able to take command of the game remotely with either a controller or an on screen gamepad.

You can check out more information on the Xbox Wire blog, but other neat features to come soon include the introduction of a Games with Gold section to the library, 1440p video output on Xbox One S and Xbox One X, updates to Microsoft Edge and open tournaments that players can join without a club.

Which feature are you most excited for? Tell us in the comments below.

Microsoft’s livestreaming service Mixer has so far been pretty successful, thanks to its integration with Xbox on a very fundamental level. That said, it does seem to lag behind the 900 lb gorilla in the room in this arena, Twitch- since there are some features Twitch has that Mixer does not.

That will be fixed starting this year. Microsoft has confirmed that the option to directly buy a game or DLC from Mixer will be added to the service this year; initially, this feature will be limited to purchases from Xbox One and Windows 10, but that may change in the future. Tipping, which, again, is a mainstay of Twitch, will also be added to the service this year.

Of course, there is a long way to go before Mixer has feature parity with Twitch- but it is good to see Microsoft continuing to improve the service. We’ll see whether it ever seriously challenges Twitch’s monopoly in the future (even YouTube could not do that).

Microsoft’s streaming service for video games, Mixer, is now available in 21 languages around the world, including with support for traditional and simplified Chinese. Why is this a big deal, you ask? It is a big deal because Mixer is going up against Twitch, the behemoth in the game video livestreaming market- and Twitch is available worldwide in a variety of languages.

Assuming Microsoft wants to continue to prop up Mixer as a viable alternative to Twitch, they will need to continue making it more valuable for the end customer. Things such as its rather excellent integration with the Xbox One definitely help, but people around the world might be more inclined to use it if they knew that they wouldn’t have to navigate a UI in a language they are not as comfortable in as their native tongue.

Mixer is, as of right now, available on Xbox only (as far as gaming consoles go); whether or not it comes to PS4 or Switch remains to be seen, but it has definitely managed to make up some pretty good ground for itself over the last few months.

Microsoft has gone ahead and changed the name of Beam, its popular streaming service, to Mixer, citing trademark issues that it would have run into internationally with the Beam name as the reason for the change.

“We believe so much in the power of the platform and want to grow it in every major market around the world,” said Co-founder Matt Salsamendi. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t something we could do with the Beam name. We chose Mixer as our new name because it represents what we love most about the service….how it brings people together.”

The name change accompanies many new features added to the service, including co-streaming, which lets you and a friend stream at once, as well as mobile game streaming functionality. New social features, including a central hub that is dynamically updating with details on eSports and Mixer updates, are also a part of this update.

It should be interesting to see if all of this helps Microsoft take some marketshare away from Twitch, YouTube, and uStream.