According to new reports, Amazon removed dozens of employees from their gaming projects and effectively laid them off on the last day of E3 2019. However, the fallout is soft. Amazon has canceled some gaming projects. The survival MMO New World is safe.
Where does the news come from? The US site Kotaku received the information from a source at Amazon Game Studios, who was laid off themselves.
Amazon has confirmed the layoffs in a statement but did not disclose how many game developers were removed from their projects or which specific games in development were canceled.
The interesting thing is that the news surfaced on the last day of E3 2019.
This is what is happening at Amazon now: Amazon laid off “dozens of employees” on Thursday morning, effectively removing them from their current gaming projects.
The employees now have the opportunity to seek new positions within Amazon. If they do not find new employment at Amazon within 60 days, they will receive a severance package.
In addition, Amazon has canceled several “unannounced projects”.
This is what Amazon says: They say they are “reorganizing some teams” to give more attention to the development of New World and Crucible and to prioritize “new unannounced projects” that they are excited to unveil in the future.
Such maneuvers are normal in business planning, as long-term goals change. They are now working closely with affected employees to secure them new positions at Amazon.
How is gaming going at Amazon? Amazon has been aiming to enter gaming since 2014, but has faced difficulties.
Amazon presented its first three gaming projects in autumn 2016:
- Breakaway, which was a kind of “action sports game”, but it was canceled as early as 2017
- New World, is the survival MMO – although much has been heard about it, little has been seen. The game is still under NDA. However, it is expected to feature gigantic dimensions due to Amazon’s impressive server technology.
- Crucible (cover image) is a third-person action game. Very little is known about the game.
It is assumed that all future games from Amazon are tailored primarily for the streaming platform Twitch. Because that belongs to Amazon.
Also, their Lumberyard Engine is aimed at streaming, with which the games are developed.
However, several high-profile hires have left Amazon before their games were released, as Kotaku reports:
- including Far Cry 2 Director Clint Hocking
- and Portal Director Kim Swift
One who still works at Amazon (as far as we know) and whom we have followed at MeinMMO is the “father of Everquest” John Smedley.
