After ten years of use, Twitch’s BibleThump emote — a representation of sorrow and sadness — is being removed. This emote, which was first licensed from The Binding of Isaac’s authors in 2013, quickly gained popularity and was used extensively on the platform. But on September 25, 2024, Twitch revealed that the BibleThump emote will have to be taken down as its rights will expire at the end of the month.
Emote’s creator dffers a solution
The creator of “The Binding of Isaac” (2011), Edmund McMillen, expressed his opinions on Twitter. Although he emphasized that the platform has the last say, McMillen stated that he is open to working out a way to maintain or modify the emote on Twitch.
“For those wondering what happened with the BibleThump emote,” McMillen said, “I’m 100% fine with coming up with a good solution to keep or modify the emote but I’m not in control of the new Twitch policies so it’s really up to them.”
Additionally, McMillen confirmed that Twitch has decided not to renew the emote’s rights. McMillen claims that there is no legal barrier barring them from doing so, which raises the possibility that Twitch may be pulling back on external initiatives.
Financial struggles may be a factor
It’s possible that Twitch’s decision to forgo renewing the BibleThump rights was influenced by financial difficulties. The platform has gone through several rounds of layoffs, ceased operations in South Korea because of excessive costs, and reduced the number of creators it highlights.
As Twitch gets ready to part ways with BibleThump, rival streaming service Kick has shown interest in acquiring the rights. Kick responded to McMillen’s tweet by writing, “We cooking?”
Though no formal agreement has been made, fans have continued to discuss the possibility of BibleThump being adopted by Kick. We’ll have to see if anything comes of the post. In the meantime, Twitch has revealed it’s planning to replace BibleThump with three new emotes: :UnBearable:, :BigSad: and :LayersOfSad:.
Initial reactions from the community aren’t good, but we’ll see if Twitch goes through with not renewing BibleThump despite public pressure.
