Emmett Shear OpenAI, End of Year Bonus Round, and Pinned Cheers Launch

Last night, just as I was heading to bed, the news dropped that former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear was being made interim CEO of OpenAI, the company most recognized for ChatGPT. That's not something that was on my Bingo card for 2023. In fact, Emmett Shear being mentioned at all in any relevant terms was not anywhere on my radar. After leaving Twitch to start a family, I don't typically expect someone to take on a role eight months later that is as important and as chaotic as OpenAI currently is. And with how Shear left Twitch (and how he handled the Twitch community in his final years), I'm not sure how it fares for OpenAI. But I guess, if nothing else, he can still turn to chat. Let's get into this week's news.

Twitch News

• End of Year Bonus Round is a new promotion from December 13th to January 2nd. During that entire period, first-time, self-paid subs or upgrades will be 25% off (same promotion from Subtember). From December 13th to December 20th, Bonus Bits will offer a 10% (or slightly more) bonus any time someone gives over 300 Bits. Then, from December 27th to January 2nd, Gift Subs will be 25% off. Conditions.
• Twitch Partners will get THREE Tier 2 Animated Emotes AND THREE Tier 3 Animated Emotes. This is in addition to Partners and Affiliates getting 2x the animated emotes, slated for release in mid-December.
• Pinned Cheer functionality launched for all affiliates and partners. Creators can turn off the function and choose the minimum Bits needed in your settings.
• The Sponsorships products (Streamer Read Ads, Channel Skins, and Sponsored Subs) appear to be getting a wider release.
• Clips edited into Vertical format will show up in the mobile Discovery Feed by the end of the year, and all mobile discovery surfaces in 2024.
• Watch Streaks have been released to roughly 50% of users on Android and PC.
• Amazon laid off another 180 people from its Games division, including shutting down the entire Crown Channel on Twitch.
• Twitch just wrapped up the Hype Challenge in the USA. Now, Hype Challenges will be running in the UK, France, Germany, Australia/NZ, and Brazil.
• The redesigned Bits Card is now available to all users.
• There is a new Global Emote ForSigmar; it's related to Warhammer.
• A new TwitchLib release was published for Unity.
• This op-ed claims Twitch is becoming a hub of misinformation and believes it will impact the 2024 elections like Facebook did in 2016 and Twitter in 2020.

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