In the forum of Lost Ark, there was briefly a thread created by the Games Specialist Mateo. In this, he announced his resignation and spoke very negatively about his job at Amazon. He criticizes the work culture, lack of bonuses, and lack of passion. The thread was deleted, but screenshots can be found on reddit.
What does the employee say? In his forum post, Mateo criticizes the company Amazon primarily for four things:
- The limited scope of action of customer service
- Missing bonuses or salary adjustments
- The poor working atmosphere and a “culture of snitching”
- Lack of passion from the studio and a strong focus on numbers and finances
According to Mateo, it is a dream for many to work in the gaming industry. However, many of the employees who are hired at Amazon Games are disappointed with their jobs.
Little room for problem-solving and frustration due to poor work environment
What exactly does Mateo criticize? The Games Specialist begins in his farewell post by explaining to the players what scope of action people at customer support have. According to him, this is highly limited:
- They could teleport people to another location
- They could restore characters (under certain circumstances)
- As a third option, they would refer to the standard guide to the game and only give tips that one could also read online – for example, on Google.
As a second major point of criticism, he mentions the appreciation from Amazon. There should be no bonuses, such as free Amazon games, and no salary adjustments due to the current high inflation.
However, even beyond material things, the appreciation of employees is almost nonexistent, which negatively impacts the work environment:
As an employee, one is not relevant here; this is communicated quite openly, and a culture of snitching is also constantly fostered and demanded. A very terrible work environment in my view; I cannot recommend this to anyone.
Mateo emphasizes: If an employee says he can understand the frustration the player is currently experiencing, then that should indeed be the case. The customer service representatives are also continually disappointed by the circumstances.
Lack of passion and too much focus on numbers
How does he see Amazon Games in general? Apart from the criticism that personally affects his position at the company, he also talks about the general orientation of Amazon Games. Here he criticizes that passion is lacking and that there is too much focus on numbers.
He believes that Amazon will therefore never achieve great success in the gaming industry because all talented employees with passion quickly realize that they will not get far here and leave the studio:
Amazon is driven purely by monetary interests, and games are not a passion. Other game providers also have problems, but the truly successful ones have one thing in common: the passion that underlies them […].
What Amazon never understood and presumably never will is: Acting solely based on logic and numbers works in trade or production. Games and gamers, however, require passion.
Players hoped that everything would be different at Amazon Games
How does the community react to the thread? The majority of commentators on reddit are shocked by the statement, even though many are not completely surprised. Around Amazon, there have always been negative reports regarding working conditions (via Business Insider). However, many hoped that at least the gaming division would be better.
That there is also a poor work environment at Amazon Games, the user coldfries finds “really very sad.” The user Laxxz writes: “Nothing that people didn’t suspect, but it’s something completely different when it’s written in yellow letters.”
Some admire Mateo for the thread; after all, he probably violated internal guidelines. Others criticize him for airing dirty laundry openly in the forums afterwards.
What does Amazon say? So far, there has been no official statement from Amazon. We at MeinMMO have already contacted the studio and requested a statement.
Recently, a Star Citizen employee also expressed criticism about the payment of his studio:
