My personal farewell to MIXED
Dear MIXED readers,
Today’s news likely came as a surprise to many of you. In truth, the end of MIXED in its current form has been looming for some time.
The past nine months have taken a toll on me as it was unclear for a long time whether MIXED would continue and, if so, in what form. Our traffic became increasingly unpredictable. One week would go well; the next would be disastrous. The last few months were an emotional roller coaster as the inevitable approached. Now that a next chapter has finally begun, I feel a great sense of relief.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Tomislav, and I’ve been part of MIXED since 2016. In the early years, I helped the site’s founder, Matthias Bastian, build up our original German XR publication. Over the course of nearly nine years, I wrote more than 6,000 articles for MIXED.de, which has made me deeply connected to the blog’s history and evolution.
With this article, I’m saying goodbye to MIXED in a personal and heartfelt way—because this is how I choose to take my leave, and because there’s no one else to take this step for MIXED and tell you, in detail, what has happened.
Death by a thousand cuts
MIXED was never a lucrative venture. From the beginning, it thrived on the passion of its writers and the willingness to invest countless hours each week—often evenings and weekends—in writing, sometimes in addition to regular jobs. As long as we had a tailwind, MIXED was able to sustain itself to some extent and even occasionally turn a profit.
A year and a half ago, the website was still in a strong position. Our English-language counterpart, which launched at the end of 2021, grew rapidly and soon surpassed the German original in page views. We benefited from the upswing in the VR industry: the Oculus Quest 2 sold millions of units, and the Metaverse hype triggered by Facebook's rebranding brought virtual reality back into the public eye. In the run-up to Meta Connect 2023, the English edition of MIXED reached its peak reach.
But the shock came just a few days after the conference. Google’s search algorithm seemingly downgraded the English site, causing our traffic to plummet by an estimated 90 percent overnight. Articles that had previously received four- or five-digit view counts suddenly dropped to just a few hundred.
The most likely cause was a core update to Google’s search engine. We were not alone. Owners of thousands of other small- and medium-sized online publications and blogs had their livelihoods destroyed. We continued to maintain the English site in the hope that the lost traffic would return. For the most part, it didn’t.
At the beginning of 2024, we adjusted our strategy and redoubled our efforts, but to no avail. What had happened to the English site was beginning to happen to the German site as well, albeit more slowly. A long battle with Google’s search algorithm followed—one that gradually eroded MIXED’s economic foundation.
Falling revenues meant fewer resources, so fewer editors had to cover more content. As a result, we compromised on the quality and breadth of our topics, accelerating the downward trend. It became a vicious circle.
We experienced one final seasonal surge around the 2024 holidays, but it was a short-lived glimmer of hope. Starting in February, traffic on the German website became increasingly irregular and unpredictable. We also noticed that Google was sharing fewer articles—even on topics that had reliably attracted readers in the past.
MIXED had a few hundred German Plus subscribers, but their numbers were declining and were never enough to finance the salary of a single editor. As an online magazine, we were dependent on revenue from Google advertising.
Of course, many other factors contributed to MIXED’s gradual decline. We were competing with more established VR blogs and Youtubers, as well as an ever-growing range of entertainment and information beyond virtual reality. On top of that, younger audiences tend to prefer watching and listening over reading—a trend that traditional online publications can do little to counter.
Nevertheless, I remain convinced that MIXED could have evolved differently if Google had adapted its search engine in a way that gives small publications like ours a better chance of surviving. We grew organically over the years, and there was clearly strong interest in our articles. Beyond regular news, MIXED created valuable, unique content that can't be found anywhere else on the web.
Virtual reality in transition
Another contributing factor in MIXED’s development was the evolution of the VR industry itself. The better the industry performed, the better MIXED performed—and unfortunately, the opposite was also true.
The early years from 2015 to 2018, when PC and console VR dominated, were the most challenging for MIXED. The emergence of standalone VR headsets and the success of Quest 2 after 2020 marked the beginning of a new phase, opening up growth opportunities and a promising future for both the industry and MIXED.
However, this upswing proved short-lived. While devices such as the PlayStation VR2, Apple Vision Pro, and Meta Quest 3(S) have advanced the technology, none have brought back the momentum the VR industry had a few years ago. Many adult users and VR enthusiasts who were willing to invest in premium titles on Quest just a few years ago have seemingly left the platform. Their place has been largely taken by children and young people, who prefer free-to-play titles. This shift in the user base poses significant challenges for established VR studios that have invested in the medium for a decade or more. They now need to develop new strategies and business models. Many have laid off employees, and some studios have closed entirely.
MIXED has also felt this change. The younger folks who are now the most active VR users don’t read blogs. They are on YouTube and TikTok—platforms where we have no presence.
A few months ago, I wrote in a column that I’m starting to feel too old for virtual reality. The mostly older core VR users increasingly face a new generation that will strongly shape the development of the Quest platform in the coming years. I’m curious to see what these first “VR natives” will do with the medium as they grow up—and where and how they’ll stay informed about its developments.
For now, virtual reality is still in its infancy, both technologically and economically.
Nine years after the introduction of the first affordable mass-market headsets, the VR industry remains fragile. It is dominated by a single marketplace and company, which faces little meaningful competition and sustains the ecosystem and R&D through advertising revenue from other parts of its business. In terms of form factor, ease of use, and practical applications, current devices are still far from ready for true mainstream adoption. I experience this firsthand every day, whether I’m using VR alone or with others. Nevertheless, I remain optimistic that the technology will eventually find its path to broad success.
Following the highs and lows of the past nine years has been fascinating, nerve-wracking—and repeatedly surprising. I’m excited to see where the journey for VR and AR leads next, and I will continue to write about these developments at Heise Online, one of Germany's and Europe's largest tech websites. So my farewell to MIXED is not a farewell to VR—quite the opposite.
I would like to thank all of our loyal readers for sticking with us over all these years. I hope my articles helped you learn more about VR or experience something in VR that enriched your life—something you might not have encountered otherwise. Ultimately, that's why I do this job.
Tomislav Bezmalinović
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