More Bits Price Changes, Twitch Sanctioned Spam Bot, Third Party Alert Support, and a New Vtuber Group Debut

Zach Bussey -

It's December, and I'm not ready for 2023 to be over! There are so many things I planned to do this year that have just NOT happened. Goals I set that I haven't achieved. Content I wanted to do that I didn't. This sentiment also hits hard as it's also my birthday month, meaning not only is a year over, but a new 'age' begins for me. It happens to all of us - wallowing in failure and not recognizing one's successes. I think it's because success is the expected outcome of our work. So when it happens, it may not feel impactful cause you set out to achieve it. When you fail, that hits hard. It's the exact opposite of what you wanted to happen! All that is to say, this time of year, I have to remind myself of the things I DID achieve and not focus on what I didn't. Maybe this is also a good reminder for you? But with that, let's get into the news!

Twitch News

  • Last week saw changes to Bits pricing in many countries worldwide, and this week saw MORE changes. Bits prices increased in Australia, India, and Taiwan. Prices dropped in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, and the UK. All the percentage changes can be viewed here.
  • Channel moderators can now see incoming ad breaks and snooze them on behalf of the streamer if creators turn on the function.
  • Twitch Alerts now have third-party support for Crowd Control, Throne, Streamlabs, and StreamElements. This is the current complete list of supported alerts.
  • A new Winter Drops Fest is launching from December 7 to 17th. Drops for games include Avatar, Chess, Cyberpunk 2077, Path of Exile, Party Animals, Pokemon Unite, PUBG, Rust, Sea of Thieves, Teamfight Tactics, Warframe, and World of Warships.
  • The Chief Content Officer, Laura Lee, has left Twitch roughly one year after she joined.
  • The Game Awards has an official Twitch Predicts extension for anyone co-streaming.
  • A new global emote launched for Together for Good week: GoldPLZ
  • Hackers claim to have confidential business data belonging to employees and clients from fintech firm Tipalti, including Roblox and Twitch. If their demands are not met, they claim it may be released. Twitch uses Tipalti to process payouts - so it could present a safety concern if it turns out to be true.
  • Dan Clancy was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald and talked about how AI doomers have a flawed premise.
  • Twitch has seemingly sanctioned a self-promotion spam bot in a partnership with Mountain Dew. The bot, which uses AI to detect Mountain Dew branding, and then sends self-promotional messaging in streamers chats - appears to be detecting false positives en masse with thousands reporting the bot has been in their chat despite no Mountain Dew branding on stream. These ads financially enrich Twitch, while creators are not given a cut of the ad revenue. Many creators are preemptively banning the Mountain Dew account from their channels or using it as an opportunity to make a fool of the technology and brand.