Nintendo Direct Surprises, Unity Controversy, Twitter Charging All Users Soon

👀Welcome New Members + Nintendo Direct Hype Is Real

Happy Tuesday Streamers,

I’m thrilled to have you join me for this latest edition, packed with exciting news from across the live streaming sphere.

We had an influx of new subscribers thanks to our friend and Twitch streamer, DeeAmazinggg. If you recently signed up during her last Animal Crossing stream, welcome! Thank you for checking out the newsletter. I hope you find some valuable takeaways from this week’s updates.

This week our top stories include the Nintendo Direct announcements. Nintendo unleashed a slew of exciting titles featuring their precious IP. Let’s just say if you are a Mario fan, you are EATIN’ GEWD!

Twitch had a pretty busy week announcing several new features and highlighting creators and events for Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month.

If you’ve been considering multi-streaming to another platform, both Kick and LiveSpace announced some new developments that may sway you.

Don’t forget to check my Tuesday To-Dos offering some insights for you amazing content creators.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

Until next time,
Brian

This Week’s Top Stories

Nintendo Reveals A Few Surprises In The September Nintendo Direct

The September Nintendo Direct has concluded, clocking in at approximately 42 minutes and delivering exciting news about upcoming games. There were plenty of surprises during the full presentation, but here are a few notable titles that piqued my interest!

• F-Zero returns in a thrilling 99-player battle royale (a concept similar to Tetris 99) and is set to launch this Thursday.

• Mario and Donkey Kong are set to receive a remake for the Switch, with the release scheduled for February.

• The newly revealed Peach game now has an official title, Princess Peach: Showtime! and it's slated for launch in March.

• One of Nintendo's all-time greats, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, is also in line for a Switch remake, slated for release in 2024.

Why It Matters: Nintendo has had a phenomenal year so far releasing some great titles. In the past, I have been critical of Nintendo’s lack of first-party titles. However, it appears as though Nintendo has really picked up momentum in creating new titles and remaking classic titles from their most popular IP. If you’re a content creator, you’re going to have a nice backlog!

Unity's Latest Move Stirs Up Controversy Among Game Developers

You may not be familiar with Unity, but you will know many of the games (Cuphead, Fall Guys, Among Us, Hollow Knight) built using this widely popular game engine. On September 12, the company unveiled a new Runtime Fee, which would require developers to pay for each game installation beyond a specific threshold. This announcement triggered an immediate and passionate response from developers, who raised concerns about potential issues stemming from this fee. These concerns included scenarios where charity bundles could cost developers significant sums of money and the risk of malicious users manipulating game installations to disrupt revenue. The backlash was substantial, with even prominent figures in the gaming industry, such as Geoff Keighley, expressing their displeasure.

Unity released an apology statement on September 17 via Twitter, acknowledging the negative reaction and promising changes to the policy. The statement read, "We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for your honest and critical feedback."

Why This Matters: If Unity doesn’t rollback these planned pricing changes, game developers will be forced to make some drastic changes to their development pipelines which could mean delays on upcoming titles. This is especially troublesome for the indie developer community with a few studios like Massive Monster, creators of Cult of the Lamb, already sounding off on Twitter about their concerns.

Elon Musk Confirms He Plans To Charge ALL Users For Access To Twitter/X

Elon Musk has revealed plans to introduce mandatory monthly fees for all users of his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter). This announcement comes as the platform faces challenges in rebuilding advertiser trust, with a reported 60% drop in U.S. ad revenue. Musk, speaking during a live-streamed conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cited the need to combat bot-driven hate speech as a key reason for the subscription model. He suggested that requiring a credit card for subscriptions would deter bots from creating accounts. Additionally, Musk mentioned plans for a lower-tier pricing option, more affordable than the current X Premium subscription priced at approximately $8 per month. However, his history of changing course on such announcements has left some uncertain about the implementation of these plans.

Why This Matters: Many of us, including myself, actively use Twitter to interact with gaming brands, content creators, and friends. This change could greatly affect how viable Twitter is for outreach and community. To be fair Twitter has been on a downward spiral for a few years now, especially since Musk took the reigns. However, I think a mandatory subscription fee will only further alienate content creators (and their audiences) who will seek out other “free” social platforms like Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. If you want to stay ahead of the game, content creators should consider investing time in building their community on other promising platforms.

📊Weekly Poll📊

Threads has been live for 3 months now! While Threads enjoyed initial success earning millions of users, usage quickly declined because of a lack of features and content.

With Twitter announcing plans to charge all users to access its platform, I want to know: Will you be spending more time on Threads? Maybe another platform?

Sound off in our weekly poll!