Twitch was Briefly a Hentai Website, Free YouTube Memberships, the Vtuber Awards + Zara Larsson

Zach Bussey -

I'll likely be changing the schedule for the newsletter over the next couple of weeks due to landing on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Also, with that in mind, the content over those two weeks will likely be slightly different, as I don't expect much streaming news. In my mind, two of the things I intend to do are some Twitch predictions for 2024 and a review of my 2023 predictions. I also plan to share my goals and learnings from the last year. If there is anything you'd be interested in me writing on, or curious about - please reply to this newsletter (either via email if you're reading it there, or leave a comment below if you're seeing it on desktop.)

But with that, let's get into the news - cause it was a busy, chaotic week!

Twitch News

  • Twitch announced loosened restrictions on sexual content this week. The update allows previously prohibited content as long as the Sexual Themes Label is applied. You can now have a camera pointed at breasts, buttocks, or pelvic region, body writing on breasts/buttocks, and erotic dances such as strip teases. You can also twerk, grind, and pole dance without using the Sexual Themes label.
  • In addition to the above, they (temporarily) allowed fictionalized nudity. However, as people attempted to explore the limits of this new freedom, Twitch became overwhelmed with hentai, naked vtubers, and AI-generated bodies. Dan Clancy walked that change back two days later, admitting they didn't "predict this outcome." (How?!)
  • Any creators using the Content Labels for Drugs, Intoxication, Excessive Tobacco Use, Violent & Graphic Depictions, Gambling, and Sexual Themes, will no longer be featured on the front page. (Note: Speaking)
  • The clips manager finally launched a "Feature" button.
  • The Bonus Round is live, and the Bits promotion is the best part of it. The bonus is at least 10%, but it seems to go as high as 50%!
  • Squad Stream is being shut down on January 17th, 2024, in favor of using Guest Star instead.
  • Stories are getting the ability to tag creators and improved reaction analytics to show who reacted.
  • Rockstar is the first company to use Twitch's new Sub Token feature to drop 600,000 tokens among the GTA RP community.
  • Italy fined Twitch 900,000 euros ($970,000 US) for breaching a ban on advertising gambling.
  • Riot Games has said that Prime Gaming has opted not to renew its monthly loot promotions.
  • Two new global emotes launched this week: GTACamera and GTAFist.
  • In January, Twitch's path to AV1 adoption will be announced.
  • Twitch signed Zara Larsson to stream on Twitch.
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