In the latest in a string of whirlwind layoffs in the games-and-games-adjacent industry, it appears there has been another round of layoffs at Twitch, according to Today Off Stream’s Zach Bussey via Twitter.
“It appears there is another round of layoffs at Twitch today,” wrote Bussey. In a reply to this tweet, he clarifies this round is “significantly smaller than the first,” referring to an earlier round of layoffs this past March that affected 9,000 Amazon employees, over 400 of which were roles at Twitch, according to a report by GamesIndustry.biz. It’s an inopportune time for not only those affected, but also for Twitch, which will be hosting its semi-annual TwitchCon at the end of the month.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, an unnamed source said these layoffs were mostly affecting “the customer experience organization,” and were a result of the company shifting towards an outsourcing business model to fulfill these roles.
“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, in response to the first round of layoffs in March. Jassy took over as CEO from Jeff Bezos in 2021.
These layoffs come as the next in a long line of industry shakeups, with layoffs at Epic Games, studios associated with Embracer Group such as Beamdog, Crystal Dynamics, and Gearbox Publishing, Team17, Naughty Dog, and Bioware, to name just a few.
