Twitch cutting 35% of its workforce, company issues statement

The Pokémon Company has issued a statement about “another company’s game released in January 2024”, a thinly veiled reference to the breakout hit Palworld, AKA “Pokémon with guns”. Is a copyright infringement suit coming at Palworld developer Pocket Pair? Well, maybe?

Last year, we reported that Twitch was introducing a new Partner Plus Program, which brought with it changes to how streamers are paid. While it was met with some praise, it was also criticized for certain threshold requirements. As a result, the company has implemented a few changes.

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.

A week after the release of Palworld in early access, The Pokemon Company issued an official statement. There has been a lot of controversy regarding the similarities between Pokemon and Pocketpair’s survival game, as Palworld features various creatures that look just like The Pokemon Company's pocket monsters.

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Palworld, the viral hit action-adventure survival title that has come under intense scrutiny over the alleged likeness of its in-game creatures to the cute monsters from Pokémon, could be staring at legal trouble. The Pokémon Company, which manages the iconic franchise, has finally released an official statement addressing the swirling plagiarism accusations against Palworld, albeit without naming the game directly. Palworld released in early access on January 19 and quickly took the Steam charts by storm, with developers Pocketpair confirming Thursday that the game had sold over eight million copies.

Earlier this evening, The Pokémon Company issued a press release seemingly addressing the recent conversation surrounding the new Steam Early Access release Palworld and its suspiciously familiar-looking collectible creatures. 

After plenty of online speculation around whether it would actually happen, The Pokémon Company has released a statement about “another company’s game” released in January 2024. And we can say what we’re all thinking: Palworld.

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.

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