People sometimes don’t realize that gaming has grown in such ways over the years that it’s almost impossible to picture video games without certain features or abilities if you didn’t personally live through those times. Such as video games without online multiplayer, open-world games, and of course, streams about video games. Streaming was easily one of the most important inventions for gaming because it gave rise to the “video game personality” that people love to watch. Look at Ninja, Pokimane, and others and you’ll see what we mean, and Twitch was the service that really changed the game on that front.
The platform was honestly simple in nature too. You come in, stream your gaming experience, build up a following, and if you do things right, you could make a LOT of money off of it. Trust us when we say people definitely have made millions upon millions because of Twitch. Oh, and we’re not just talking about Ninja either, though he is one of the higher benchmarks for sure in terms of gaming streams. Many have come to challenge the platform, but they’ve never made it that far. But now, the service is making key changes that even have its own employees crying out “foul”.
Key among these changes is the increase in ads you have to watch before and during streams and the decrease in revenue that the creators get. If you haven’t heard, it’s now at only 50%. That’s a huge drop, and when you compare that to other platforms like YouTube? That’s the lowest split by far!
Bloomberg did a piece about this, and two former employees of the company came forward and noted that the current leadership is NOT one to think about the streamers, but rather focus on the business side of things. This included a former Director at the company in Zachary Diaz, who called out the current President Dan Clancy:
“He is this embodiment of ‘Creator sentiment is secondary to everything.’ There’s no leader to push back against that, so it’s now the direction of Twitch.”
That’s definitely not something want to hear since the service is just about the streams, so thus the personalities who make the most successful streams should be treated fairly well. Not punished for doing great by taking away their revenue. That is why Diaz and others think that Twitch has become “out of touch” with what the platform needs.
They might get their wake-up call soon enough too, as many top-tier streamers are threatening to leave the company as a whole. While streamers like Ninja have left in the past, they had enough people to “hold the fort.” But if they don’t change their ways? Their fort could implode.
Source: Bloomberg
