Good Monday to you! It was an interesting week for the streaming space. While most of the updates were small, a couple are consequential and likely will dictate broader conversations about platforms and creators in the weeks and months ahead. Introspection is essential at all levels and can often lead to improvements. Unfortunately, considering the time we live in, I'm not 100% sure that the outcomes will be productive.
But hey, the future is unwritten, and for most creators, these conversations won't even register as having occurred. Of course, I'll offer the broad strokes coverage in these recaps, allowing you to at least remain aware. But any more than that, I'd feel like I'd be wading too deep into a type of coverage I wouldn't feel good about. And with that said, let's jump right into the news!
Twitch News
- Twitch will soon notify creators on the Creator Home page with stats to encourage them to run more ads, possibly by telling you how much others are making.
- Amazon has put Viral Thacker in charge of Twitch's ads sales unit.
- Twitch's CMO was interviewed about Twitch's desire to be a house of brands rather than driving direct results.
- Tubefilter points out how the two above stories may conflict with one another.
- The Game Developer badge is being deprecated today. Fortunately, developer reviews will resume in November after being halted since the January layoff.
- Gifting a sub on Twitch will earn you a code for 3-months of Discord Nitro, but only if you've not had it for 12 months and a slew of other conditions.
- Cindy Charles, Twitch's Head of Music, tragically passed away.
- Twitch removed Korean, Polish, Russian, Turkish, and Thai as Twitch Blog languages.
- This week, users found that Twitch had banned email signups for Israel and Palestine shortly after October 7, 2023. Twitch responded that the block had been implemented to prevent footage from spreading, but they forgot to turn the email signup back on. I don't think this was malicious, but rather Twitch remains an incompetent organization.
- Twitch CEO met with Australia's eSafety Commissioner while in Australia for PAX Aus and SXSW. He also had time for an interview about AI and its potential benefits and drawbacks.
Streaming Industry News
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- You can now submit Award Categories for the Streamer Awards. I recommend suggesting a DJ category.
- Noice has opened a rewards program for creators in Europe. The program would offer Reward Units that might convert to cash if the company ever IPOs.
- Investment in US Creator Startups continues to be very limited, with most going into Crypto, AI, and Services related to the creator space.
- IRIAM will launch its virtual streaming app beta in the USA in mid-November.
- Twitter will soon change how the Block button works to prevent engagement but allow the blocked user to view the content.
- Due to the above story, Bluesky has added a million new users, bringing the total to 12M. I'm on Bluesky and Threads!
- Crowd Control is implementing in-game hype train spawns.
- Riot Games had another round of layoffs.
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