Dan Clancy has announced on the radio that 400 employees at Twitch have been let go in a major round of layoffs due to “the current financial situation” just days into his new position as CEO. This information was released just hours after it was made public that Amazon, the parent company of Twitch, will be laying off a startling 9,000 people.
The wave of layoffs rocking the IT, gaming, and esports industries had been waning for a spell, but it has recently returned in full force. Microsoft, Riot Games, and Meta recently made numerous layoffs. Apple and other Major companies aggressively cut projects to avoid producing more.
400 workers have now been let go by Twitch.
We Have Made The Extremely Hard Choice…
It’s a phrase that has become overused in recent months as many businesses and fans use social media to announce massive layoffs. Things have been particularly difficult in the gaming and esports industries; some gaming groups have recently collapsed.
Twitch is not exempt from layoffs as a company, and Dan Clancy, who has been CEO of Twitch for less than a week, announced in a statement that 400 staff members would be let go.
Like many other businesses, our business has been influenced by the present economic situation. The rise of users and income has yet to match our projections. We have made the extremely painful choice to reduce the amount of our personnel to operate our business sustainably.
After the (timely) departure of Emmett Shear, who served as CEO of the enormous streaming network for sixteen years, Dan Clancy assumed the position. But, some platform creators are already cultivating negative karma around the change. Millions of streamers were offended when Dan Clancy famously wrote a lengthy essay around the end of 2022 detailing why a 70/30 income split wasn’t feasible.
Regrettably, this news has brought about a flurry of comments on social media. Some gloom-and-doomers assert that Twitch is a platform just a few seconds away from collapsing. That’s not likely, and the redundancies should assist in covering costs and strengthen the platform instead.