Ninja's departure from Twitch and his signing of an exclusive contract with Microsoft's competing service Mixer shook the world of livestreaming. The most famous livestreamer on Twitch had abandoned his post. Yet the reaction afterward wasn't a question of who would climb to take Ninja's place, but rather who would be next to leave. One strong possibility is apparently the often controversial Dr. Disrespect, by his own words.
Speaking on-stream, Dr. Disrespect made clear his loyalties. "I don't give a **** what platform I stream on, dude," he says, noting that he'll go wherever he can make more money. Going into character, Dr. Disrespect later says that in order for Mixer to pull him away from Twitch it'd need to offer him a deal, "at Ninja's level or higher."
Dr. Disrespect has long been speculated to be a prime candidate to depart Twitch in favor of Mixer. He's had multiple strikes while on the platform, the most recent being a live recording from an E3 bathroom while it was occupied by other people.
He also heavily criticizes Twitch. Just today he complained about another streamer highlighted on the Twitch front page who was playing Fortnite with Ninja while Ninja was streaming on Mixer. Dr. Disrespect has also tweeted about a visit to Microsoft in Seattle that was under NDA in the past.
Speculation has only grown in the Twitch-viewing community. YouTube vodcaster Ethan Klein from h3h3 said recently that he'd spoken with a "Top 5" Twitch streamer that was seriously considering leaving for Mixer once a deal was in place. Given his routine discontent with Twitch and his past appearances on the H3 vodcast, Dr. Disrespect was believed to be who Klein was talking about.
The reality of the situation is that few Twitch streamers would be likely to stay on the platform if Microsoft offered them a multi-million dollar contract to stream on Mixer. Fortnite streamer DrLupo was quoted as saying he'd stream on Mixer for around $3 million a year, which Ninja at the time predicted could reasonably happen. The bigger question is how much money Microsoft is willing to spend to get streamers on its platform. And whether it's interested in controversial personalities like Dr. Disrespect in the first place.
With Ninja setting impressive milestones already on Mixer, maybe Microsoft will stand pat and see how the platform develops on its own. After all, it's better to grow talent than to take another platform's and hope they stay loyal after their contract ends.
Source: Windows Central