Twitch streamers are already devising wild ways to get around new sponsorship rules
Twitch's new restrictions really haven't gone down well
Twitch streamers are already in an arms race to get around the much-maligned new guidelines on sponsorships.
Yesterday on June 6, Twitch announced new rules that would limit sponsorships, dictating that sponsored logos would be limited to 3% of the screen, and also preventing streamers from embedding advertising overlays on their streams. This announcement went down incredibly poorly with streamers around the world, forcing Twitch to apologize just a few hours later.
Less than 24 hours after the initial announcement and the apology from Twitch, streamers are now inventing creative workarounds for the new advertising rules. Just below for example, we can see Paladin Amber flipping Twitch the bird, before raising up a green screen in the background emblazoned with her sponsorship logos, which is a pretty creative way of getting around the restrictions.
Checkmate 🙂 https://t.co/vkgxJZw6Eg pic.twitter.com/qlp789Z6NNJune 7, 2023
Elsewhere, Anne Munition has taken to displaying sponsored products in the background of their stream, literally just spread out all over their room. Hey, Twitch didn't say anything about sponsored products hanging around in view of the camera, and Logitech themselves have even given the streamer the seal of approval via their Twitter account.
I'm not allowed to put logos directly in OBS that are over 3% of the screen size but I AM allowed to showcase products in the back of my setup.Welcome to the future of streaming. How many @LogitechG products can you spot? pic.twitter.com/rT9fRbldJhJune 6, 2023
This whole thing is a mess from Twitch, and you can tell it's gone down really poorly just by the fact that streamers are already coming up with workarounds less than a day later. This is despite the fact that Twitch has walked back the rules as "overly broad" and pledged to rewrite the rules, as streamers are just plain annoyed by the fact that Twitch thought this was a good idea in the first place.
Check out our upcoming PC games guide for a look ahead at some of the games your favorite streamers could be playing throughout the rest of the year.
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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.