Twitch confirms substantial layoffs

The popular streaming platform Twitch has recently issued its eighth ban to Amouranth, a well-known streamer boasting over 6 million followers. Surprisingly, the community's reaction has taken a light and humorous tone. Many members express a prevailing belief that Amouranth's return to Twitch will be swift, giving rise to playful banter and jokes about the expected predictability of her reappearance on the platform.

The development team behind Blizzard's now-cancelled survival game, reportedly called Odyssey, is seemingly among the teams dramatically impacted by the layoffs at Microsoft today.

Polish developer People Can Fly, which is arguably best known for making the third-person co-op shooter Outridersand first-person-shooter Bulletstorm, has confirmed that it’s laid off a number of its staff. A spokesperson described the situation as “unfortunate.”

Twitch has announced a major change to its Partner Program set to start later this year, expanding the qualifications for the site's lucrative revenue split. The streaming platform's partnership program has undergone a plethora of major changes throughout recent years, both adjusting its revenue splits and changing its partnership contracts. Last year saw Twitch introduce a new 50/50 revenue split with partnered creators, which was met with significant controversy and later saw a 70/30 revenue split introduced through its Partner Plus Program. Now, Twitch is set to expand its highest partnership tier.

Microsoft has made the decision to lay off a massive 1,900 staff from its gaming division. While the majority of the Microsoft layoffs are coming from Activision Blizzard, staff at Xbox and ZeniMax are also believed to be affected.

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A bunch of companies in the technology sector have been laying off some of their employees recently after quickly ramping up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic while people spent more time and money online. Now, many of them are making job cuts to help lower costs and bolster their bottom lines. Here's some of the companies that have laid of employees of late:

Twitch has reportedly issued a 30-day suspension to popular streamer Boggles1, following an on-stream stunt that saw the content creator gain plenty of notoriety throughout recent weeks. The Amazon-owned streaming platform has been no stranger to doling out bans to some of the biggest content creators using the platform, often garnering criticism for its policies. Popular streamers like IShowSpeed and Amouranth have been on the receiving end of Twitch's disciplinary action, with the former banned for nearly two years. Now, Boggles1 has become the newest streamer to receive a temporary ban.

Twitch is expanding its Partner Plus programme to allow more streamers to benefit from its higher revenue share.

Riot Games is the latest games industry firm to confirm significant layoffs.

Behaviour Interactive, the Canadian game developer behind multiplayer survival horror Dead by Daylight, has confirmed that it’s laying off a number of its staff.

Twitch has released details of its next TwitchCon events in both Europe and the US.