The head of Amazon Games, the developers of Crucible and New World, is stepping down from his position. He cited that he wants to spend more time with his family as the reason for his resignation. A year ago, an insider report pointed out issues with his leadership style: He reportedly lacked competency in gaming.
Who is Mike Frazzini? The long-time Amazon employee has been with the company long before the establishment of Amazon Games. He started his career there in the books department, which he successfully led.
In 2012, he took over the leadership of the newly established Amazon Game Studios, which had evolved from the Amazon App Store. In 2016, Amazon announced plans to tackle major game projects such as Crucible, Breakaway and New World.
On March 26, 2022, Amazon’s spokesperson announced that Mike Frazzini will step down from his position at Amazon Games.
Mike has been with Amazon Games from the start, and his leadership and perseverance helped build the game business from the ground up. Our latest successes with New World and Lost Ark are results of a sustainable, customer-oriented vision for games that he helped to establish. […]
Frazzini cites that he wants to spend more time with his family as the reason for his resignation.
4 games canceled before release, 1 “un-released”
These games were and were not developed: Under Frazzini’s leadership, Amazon Gaming Studios initially released mainly mobile games such as the horror game “Lost Within” for iOS and for the in-house platform “Amazon Appstore”.
At TwitchCon 2016, it was announced that the developer is also working on major titles. A series of game announcements followed, including:
- MMO New World
- Hero shooter Crucible
- Multiplayer brawler Breakaway
- MMO based on “The Lord of the Rings” franchise
Of these, only Crucible and New World actually saw the light of day:
- After an extremely strong start, New World, however, lost a massive number of players, dropping from an all-time peak of nearly one million players to about 30,000 (via Steamcharts).
- Crucible was “un-released” after a disastrous launch, meaning it was taken offline and never returned.
Breakaway and the “Lord of the Rings” MMO were also canceled mid-development. In “The Lord of the Rings”, there were issues with the partner in Asia.
Additionally, there were games that were canceled before any announcement was even made. These include Nova, which was inspired by League of Legends, and Intensity, a battle-royale shooter in the style of Fortnite.
The MMORPG Lost Ark is the latest game currently running under the banner of Amazon Games. It is being developed by the Korean studio Smilegate and published by Amazon in Europe and the USA.
Insider report puts Frazzini in a bad light: No knowledge of games
These problems were reported by insiders: According to an insider report from Bloomberg in January 2021, Frazzini’s leadership was problematic. As a businessman, the head of Amazon Games reportedly had little understanding of the games he and his team were supposed to develop.
According to a former Amazon Games employee, Frazzini’s leadership suffered because he had no experience in game development. Employees felt that he completely underestimated the complexity of video games.
The report states that Frazzini has no understanding of basic gaming aspects, such as the distinction between polished conceptual footage and real gameplay.
He would also demand that Amazon’s games become “massive billion-dollar franchises,” as big as Call of Duty, but innovative and completely different.
At the same time, however, he would allocate too few developers to the teams or completely ignore the advice of the experienced developer talents he had recruited from other studios.
One of Amazon Games’ major competitors, on the other hand, is doing exceptionally well:
A gaming company is larger than Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft – And its emblem is a damn penguin
