Tech giant among others – including Amazon and Meta – to cut workforce as business predictions slowed down in the past year Google has laid off hundreds of employees working on its hardware, voice assistance and engineering teams as part of cost-cutting measures. The cuts come as Google looks towards “responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead”, the company said in a statement ..read more

Internal note says company has ‘identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas’ amid wave of layoffs Amazon will lay off several hundred employees in its streaming and studio operations, according to an internal note sent on Wednesday. The announcement came the same day as the live-streaming company Twitch, a subsidiary of the e-commerce giant, disclosed that it would lay off about 35% of its workforce, or 500 employees. Amazon last year cut more than 27,000 jobs as part of a wave of US tech layoffs, drawing a sharp line under the industry’s recruitment spree du ..read more

Users on the platform used mainly by gamers will be able to stop others viewing their streams The live video streaming company Twitch will allow users to prevent blocked or banned users from viewing their streams, in a move designed to counter harassment on the platform. The popular streaming service, mostly used to watch others playing video games, will launch the new feature in September. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988 ..read more

Kai Cenat, 21, a streamer, had announced the event to his several million followers and crowds surged beyond control Police in New York City detained an internet personality after his supposed video game console giveaway drew a crowd to Manhattan’s Union Square which devolved into chaos Friday. Kai Cenat, who is known as an influencer on Twitch and YouTube platforms, was taken into custody, New York police said. Police were mulling possible criminal charges such as inciting a riot, Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD chief of department, said in the evening ..read more

In 2020, people of all ages and backgrounds were suddenly stuck at home, with many turning to streaming platforms to connect with their peers – transforming toxic spaces into inclusive environments Something weird happened to video game streaming in the early part of 2020. For a long time, platforms such as Twitch, Mixer and YouTube Live were clubhouses crammed with teenage and twentysomething dudes who ruthlessly guarded what they saw as their patch, trolling and hate raiding channels run by creators outside their demographic. Sure, Twitch has worked hard to combat old stereotypes and foster ..read more

People online pretend to be jerky video-game characters – and some make tons of money doing it. What on earth? Have you ever thought about selling pictures of your feet online? I’m not ashamed to say it’s crossed my mind. It’s not that I have exceptionally lovely feet – in fact, they’re pretty gnarly – it’s just that I like scheming up ways to get rich quick. And, for a while, it seemed like feet were just the ticket. There was a period in 2022 when TikTok was inundated with videos about the photo-selling website FeetFinder; footfluencers were claiming to make thousands of dollars on the site ..read more

The parents of the home computer gamers of the 1980s presumably hoped we’d become programmers or accountants, but instead their kids ended up like me I had one of those ads pop up on Twitter recently. You know the ones. Not the weirdly suggestive ones trying to get you to download some crap free-to-play mobile game. The ones that show you something you never previously thought you needed – because you didn’t – but now you’ve seen it, you think your life cannot possibly go on without it. Like a cage for barbecuing vegetables. A watch that doubles as a miniature air fryer. This one was for a tin ..read more

After streamer complaints of a toxic community culture, slashes in earnings and an unsustainable work model, what next for the Amazon-owned site? Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Twitch is having a rough time. The live-streaming site, owned by Amazon since 2014, is synonymous for many with video games. The audience for TechScape is broad, so forgive me: some of you will wonder why I have to explain that Twitch is where viewers watch microcelebrities play video games, interact with those influencers and experience tight parasocial relationships of the sort that other ..read more

Chess’s fusty image has been shaken by recent allegations of underhand tactics. But as any fan or player can tell you, it has long been younger, hipper – and wilder – than most outsiders realised One of chess’s best-known grandmasters is considering a theory so outlandish that, until three weeks ago, it lurked only in the murkiest corners of the internet. “Vibrating anal beads?” says Simon Williams, a popular commentator known as Ginger GM. He pauses to consider the claims, amplified by Elon Musk, that a remote-controlled sex toy could help a player cheat. And then he delivers a withering dism ..read more

Move by Amazon-owned site apparently prompted by revelations popular streamer scammed fellow users Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming site, will ban users from posting videos of themselves playing slots, roulette or dice games on unlicensed gambling sites, the company has said. The ban, which will be effective as of 18 October, comes in the wake of a wide-ranging scandal among top-tier streamers after British streamer ItsSliker admitted to scamming other hosts out of thousands of dollars to fuel what he described as a gambling addiction ..read more