Is Amazon moving away from Twitch platform?

Cuddleheart

I noticed that Amazon seems to be chopping off all the extra features that were lumped into Twitch and selling them off (Curse addons) or are spinning them off to a separate app (Prime games).  I was wondering, with all the heat from DMCAs and various other problems on Twitch, if Amazon is losing faith in the Twitch platform and is stepping back some?  What do you think?

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Scot

Amazon have oodles of extra cash due to Corvid this year and they are never short of a bob or two in a normal year. So I doubt they are moving away from anything and that's speaking as someone who arbores this platform for gaming.

AlBQuirky

It would be hard to believe for me as Amazon owns Twitch and I believe they want it to succeed in order to sell their ads. Blue does have a point, though about anti-trust.

They did change "Twitch Prime" to "Prime gaming", so that seems more connecting rather than disconnecting. Or is that opposite effect?

I'm no billionaire and don't run any multi-national corporations, so I really have no idea, though

Cuddleheart

AlBQuirky said:

It would be hard to believe for me as Amazon owns Twitch and I believe they want it to succeed in order to sell their ads. Blue does have a point, though about anti-trust.

They did change "Twitch Prime" to "Prime gaming", so that seems more connecting rather than disconnecting. Or is that opposite effect?

I'm no billionaire and don't run any multi-national corporations, so I really have no idea, though

So the switch from Twitch gaming to Prime gaming involved removing all the old Prime gaming functionality out of the Twitch app and onto it's own Amazon games app.

I don't think they are abandoning it, but with the heat Twitch has has as of late, is it paranoid of me to think they might be isolating Twitch in case they have to make some sort of move to distance the Amazon name from the platform?

AlBQuirky

Cuddleheart said:

AlBQuirky said:

It would be hard to believe for me as Amazon owns Twitch and I believe they want it to succeed in order to sell their ads. Blue does have a point, though about anti-trust.

They did change "Twitch Prime" to "Prime gaming", so that seems more connecting rather than disconnecting. Or is that opposite effect?

I'm no billionaire and don't run any multi-national corporations, so I really have no idea, though

So the switch from Twitch gaming to Prime gaming involved removing all the old Prime gaming functionality out of the Twitch app and onto it's own Amazon games app.

I don't think they are abandoning it, but with the heat Twitch has has as of late, is it paranoid of me to think they might be isolating Twitch in case they have to make some sort of move to distance the Amazon name from the platform?

That's a really good point. The DMCA backlash could kill steaming...

Wizardry

blueturtle13 said:

I think it is an antitrust move more than anything

I simply feel they are worried about possible incoming lawsuits because the government has been going after Amazon.So they have been making an assertive effort to be appearing to CARE.

I am however interested to know what you mean by antitrust?That sort of leads towards bargaining issues of which again I am not sure what you mean by this?

Oh geesh nm I think you are on the same track as me..I think.However antitrust and monopoly have more to do with Amazon's major brand and not so much to do with Twitch which is why I feel they are simply worried the government is going to levy a few very large fines at any chance it gets.

Vrika

AlBQuirky said:

Cuddleheart said:

AlBQuirky said:

It would be hard to believe for me as Amazon owns Twitch and I believe they want it to succeed in order to sell their ads. Blue does have a point, though about anti-trust.

They did change "Twitch Prime" to "Prime gaming", so that seems more connecting rather than disconnecting. Or is that opposite effect?

I'm no billionaire and don't run any multi-national corporations, so I really have no idea, though

So the switch from Twitch gaming to Prime gaming involved removing all the old Prime gaming functionality out of the Twitch app and onto it's own Amazon games app.

I don't think they are abandoning it, but with the heat Twitch has has as of late, is it paranoid of me to think they might be isolating Twitch in case they have to make some sort of move to distance the Amazon name from the platform?

That's a really good point. The DMCA backlash could kill steaming...

I think it's very unlikely that anything would kill streaming. At the end of the day all parties involved benefit from games being streamed, and they're just arguing how to divide the profits.

Wizardry

I also wanted to point out that Amazon has ADDED monetization to the platform which is just sickening.Cheers/bits ,Amazon prime account to get a free twitch sub.I know just in hearthstone you could get cheaper card packs if spending on Amazon coins,so I am sure there are other similar avenues of making money in other games.

"moving away from the platform"I doubt that very much because it is making a LOT of money and why they purchased it in the first place.

Cuddleheart

Wizardry said:

I also wanted to point out that Amazon has ADDED monetization to the platform which is just sickening.Cheers/bits ,Amazon prime account to get a free twitch sub.I know just in hearthstone you could get cheaper card packs if spending on Amazon coins,so I am sure there are other similar avenues of making money in other games.

"moving away from the platform"I doubt that very much because it is making a LOT of money and why they purchased it in the first place.

Why all the effort to turn the Twitch app into your one stop shop for streaming, Prime game libraries and game addons to only dissolve the whole thing back into parts again?

It appeared they were putting all their gaming eggs into the Twitch basket and suddenly they reverse course...and quickly.  This makes me wonder why and I can't think of any reason to cannibalize the Twitch platform.  I mean I only logged onto Twitch to get my free Prime games and WoW addons.

I know the DMCA thing is big, I know game devs are starting to rumble about wanting a cut of streams, and I know a few high profile streamers have had various controversies and was wondering if it was connected or if there would be another practical reason to dissolve their unified platform into multiple pieces?

Vrika

Cuddleheart said:

It appeared they were putting all their gaming eggs into the Twitch basket and suddenly they reverse course...and quickly.  This makes me wonder why and I can't think of any reason to cannibalize the Twitch platform.  I mean I only logged onto Twitch to get my free Prime games and WoW addons.

That might also be why they're dissolving it. It may be simply that Twitch viewers didn't buy enough other stuff through their app, and people there for the other stuff didn't view Twitch enough.

Cuddleheart

Vrika said:

Cuddleheart said:

It appeared they were putting all their gaming eggs into the Twitch basket and suddenly they reverse course...and quickly.  This makes me wonder why and I can't think of any reason to cannibalize the Twitch platform.  I mean I only logged onto Twitch to get my free Prime games and WoW addons.

That might also be why they're dissolving it. It may be simply that Twitch viewers didn't buy enough other stuff through their app, and people there for the other stuff didn't view Twitch enough.

True.  It would be interesting to me if it was the reason too.  I've never used Twitch before the app and I have clicked on stream for a few minutes if it's a game I haven't heard of or I'm a sucker for my favorite MMA fighters streams :P 

I thought putting in a pre-built Prime game library would help with cross promotion as streamers would have a built in library of games everyone else on Twitch also had.  I've been surprised by failures before though.

FrodoFragins

Wizardry said:

I also wanted to point out that Amazon has ADDED monetization to the platform which is just sickening.Cheers/bits ,Amazon prime account to get a free twitch sub.I know just in hearthstone you could get cheaper card packs if spending on Amazon coins,so I am sure there are other similar avenues of making money in other games.

"moving away from the platform"I doubt that very much because it is making a LOT of money and why they purchased it in the first place.

Well that was expected.  They first built up the customer base and market share and watched competitors flounder.  Now they are more actively monetizing it. 

You didn't even mention the part that pissed off their content creators, which was mandatory ads for a minimum amount of time per hour.

FrodoFragins

How is moving twitch gaming to prime gaming changing an antitrust case against the parent Amazon?  

The more logical explanation for prime gaming is that there's far more visibility.  How many people with a Prime account even know about Twitch prime or Twitch for that matter?

I have no idea about the current status of curse addons, but if they sold it then it's likely due to it not being worth the trouble financially.  I did try them briefly and they were certainly convenient.  But I'm not familiar with how they were monetized.

I'm sure Amazon is not happy with where the DMCA stuff is headed.  It's one thing to deal with taking down or muting vods.  But the RIAA is now starting to use tech to detect violations in live streams.  I can see them sending real time notices and asking for recompense. 

This could lead Twitch to having to delay all streams in order to detect and mute them themselves.  But that will ruin the entire experience for most streamers and viewers.  I just don't see this getting better.  But I doubt it's nearly bad enough to want to sell off. 

AlBQuirky

Vrika said:

AlBQuirky said:

Cuddleheart said:

AlBQuirky said:

It would be hard to believe for me as Amazon owns Twitch and I believe they want it to succeed in order to sell their ads. Blue does have a point, though about anti-trust.

They did change "Twitch Prime" to "Prime gaming", so that seems more connecting rather than disconnecting. Or is that opposite effect?

I'm no billionaire and don't run any multi-national corporations, so I really have no idea, though

So the switch from Twitch gaming to Prime gaming involved removing all the old Prime gaming functionality out of the Twitch app and onto it's own Amazon games app.

I don't think they are abandoning it, but with the heat Twitch has has as of late, is it paranoid of me to think they might be isolating Twitch in case they have to make some sort of move to distance the Amazon name from the platform?

That's a really good point. The DMCA backlash could kill steaming...

I think it's very unlikely that anything would kill streaming. At the end of the day all parties involved benefit from games being streamed, and they're just arguing how to divide the profits.

I truly hope so. I've watched many games being streamed that I will never play, but enjoyed watching and other games that interested me enough to purchase them