Yesterday was a “very hard day” for Twitch, according to CEO Dan Clancy. In a note to employees, Clancy announced that the live-streaming service, which is owned by Amazon, would be eliminating just over 500 positions across the company.

“Unfortunately… it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business,” Clancy wrote. “While the Twitch business remains strong, for some time now the organization has been sized based upon where we optimistically expect our business to be in three or more years, not where we’re at today.”

Over the past year, Clancy says that Twitch has paid out nearly $1 billion to streamers, but in order to remain sustainable, like other tech companies, Twitch is scaling their operation according to more conservative predictions. Clancy added, “This decision, while incredibly difficult and painful, is necessary to ensure that we can continue to serve our streamers sustainably without impacting their ability to support their careers on Twitch.”

It wasn’t a great day for Twitch’s parent company either. In an email to staff, which the company released in lieu of a statement, Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, announced that the video streaming service will be “eliminating several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization.”

The cuts are meant to help the company focus on “content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact,” he writes. “Our industry continues to evolve quickly and it’s important that we prioritize our investments for the long-term success of our business, while relentlessly focusing on what we know matters most to our customers… Our prioritization of initiatives that we know will move the needle, along with our continued investments in programming, marketing and product, positions our business for an even stronger future.”

Both Clancy’s and Hopkins’ messages to their staff were apologetic and conciliatory. And, it should be noted, they followed the best practice, according to HR professionals, of letting people go on a Wednesday. Today, Clancy will be hosting a live stream on Twitch at 1pm PT to answer any further questions employees might have. MiC will update with any relevant news.