Twitch has announced 2024 dates for both TwitchCon North America and TwitchCon Europe. The announcements come just days after the Amazon-owned streaming platform made 500 staff (or 35% of its workforce) redundant.
TwitchCon Europe will be held in Rotterdam Ahoy, Netherlands from June 29-30, 2024. This is the first time the show has been held in Rotterdam Ahoy, and will return in 2025 and 2026. TwitchCon North America will return to the San Diego Convention Centre from September 20-22, 2024. Twitch has a standing reservation at the SDCC until 2028. These are roughly the same dates these shows happen every year.
Here’s a quote from Twitch CEO Dan Clancy. “TwitchCon is a celebration of self-expression and creativity, championing creators who have changed the landscape for content and entertainment. It is a space that allows us to explore the evolution of livestreaming and where communities come together.”
One has to question the wisdom of announcing not one but two conventions just days after putting so many people out of work to save money. As reported by Bloomberg the day news of the redundancies broke, Clancy wrote a blog post regarding the redundancies that cited the need to cut wages. “Over the last year, we’ve been working to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch will be here for the long run and throughout the year we have cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient,” reads Clancy’s post. “Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business.”
It would seem to me that, were one looking to save money at a company where it’s this difficult to turn a profit, staging two massive international conventions could be seen as an unnecessary expense. From an optics standpoint, announcing a pair of giant parties for yourself after laying off 35% of your total workforce could be perceived as a move lacking in self-awareness.
Kotaku Australia has reached out to Twitch for comment.
Tickets to TwitchCon Rotterdam 2024 will go on sale in February.
Image: Twitch
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