The Vice President of Amazon Games, Christoph Hartmann, had to inform over 180 employees that they will be laid off. The company wants to restructure and therefore has to close some areas.
Why were the employees laid off? Amazon Games wants to focus more on the areas with the greatest growth potential. Therefore, two areas will be shut down: Crown Channel and Game Growth.
Crown Channel was responsible for the streams on its own Twitch channel. The team provided fresh content every week. Game Growth, on the other hand, helped game publishers market their titles to a new audience.
Instead, Amazon Games now wants to focus on other areas, as he writes in an email to employees:
After further evaluation of our business areas, it became clear that we need to concentrate our resources and efforts on providing players with great games now and in the future.
Christoph Hartmann, Vice President of Amazon Games, via The Verge
Already in April 2023, Amazon Games had to lay off around 100 employees. The company now wants to focus more on the free games from Prime Gaming. Customers want new games every month, which Amazon Games now aims to deliver.
Amazon Games is currently planning the release of the MMORPG Blue Protocol in Europe:
The state of MMORPGs from Amazon Games
Amazon Games is particularly known for its many MMORPGs. After the wave of layoffs, the question arose as to how the games would be affected. The company is developing and publishing the following titles:
- New World
- Lost Ark
- Blue Protocol
- Throne and Liberty
- Game based on Tomb Raider
- MMO based on The Lord of the Rings
In a statement to MassivelyOP, Amazon Games confirmed that none of the games were affected by the layoffs. On the contrary: The cuts are being made so that the company can focus on the development and publishing of video games.
This means, for example, that there should be nothing standing in the way of a timely release of Blue Protocol in Europe. Recently, the first public test took place here in Europe. Throne and Liberty also seems to have no serious consequences to fear. The MMORPG will be released in Korea in a few weeks.
The MMO based on The Lord of the Rings unfortunately has neither a name nor a release date. Therefore, the public would probably not notice if the game had to be internally postponed.
Fans of Tomb Raider can expect several new projects. There will be not only a new game but also a series about the video game heroine. In addition, Amazon has partnered with Disruptive Studios and Glowmade, who are also working on a game that Amazon will publish. However, there is no information on that yet.
This year, many employees in the gaming industry had to be laid off. Bungie also had to lay off some of its workers: Destiny 2: New insider information regarding the layoffs – bosses allegedly waived bonuses
