More than 400 Twitch employees were affected by Amazon’s extensive layoffs announced Monday. according to a memo from new Twitch CEO Dan Clancy. Company 9,000 jobs cut total across its Amazon Web Services, human resources, Twitch, and advertising divisions. News of the layoffs comes days after former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear stepped down from his position.
Twitch employees were not told if they were affected prior to the announcement; they still don’t know and will hear it “early next week at the latest,” according to an email from Clancy reviewed by Polygon. Two workers confirmed this to Polygon; said one Update from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy about the layoffs caused confusion among the staff. (Both employees were given anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.)
“I am disappointed to have to share the news in this way before we can communicate directly with those who will be affected, but it is important that you hear this difficult news directly from me,” Clancy wrote in the email to staff. .
Clancy’s public memo blamed the layoff on “the current macroeconomic environment”, saying user and revenue growth fell short of expectations. “In order to run our business sustainably, we have made the very difficult decision to downsize our workforce,” said Clancy.
Twitch declined to comment further, nor would it confirm Twitch’s total workforce.
Twitch was founded in 2007 as Justin.tv before being renamed Twitch Interactive in 2014. Amazon bought the streaming platform for $1 billion that same year. Twitch had a particularly successful run during the pandemic. The platform, which already dominates the streaming space, was more popular than ever. Twitch’s ratings are down, but they’re still high.
This is Amazon’s second round of layoffs this year more than 18,000 people cut of the company in January. That wave of layoffs has largely targeted Amazon Stores, including its comics company Comixology.
It feels like a different tech company is announcing layoffs every day, and it’s expanding to the video game industry as well. The 10,000 jobs that Microsoft cut affected studios like Bethesda and 343 Industries, which will Star field And Halo infinity, respectively. Unity Software, which makes the products people use to make games, and Riot Games are among the other studios that have laid off employees. Why are these layoffs taking place? Official reasons vary, but it mostly boils down to growth reportedly slowing after the big tech boom during the pandemic. Companies want to save money, but whether there will be layoffs Actually austerity is debatable, according to The Verge.
Update: This story has been updated with new information from Twitch staff.
