Amazon Layoffs Come for Its Gaming Divisions

Amazon’s latest round of layoffs reportedly includes roughly 100 employees from its video game divisions—Prime Gaming, Game Growth, and Amazon Games’ San Diego studio.

Some staffers will be reassigned to other projects “that match our strategic focus,” Games VP Christoph Hartmann wrote in an employee memo published in full by CNBC(Opens in a new window).

That may include opportunities with the New World team in Irvine, California, or the company’s Montreal and San Diego studios, the latter of which, despite layoffs, will “double down on the pre-production phase” of an unannounced title.

“There is never a pleasant way to share this sort of news, but we are committed to treating our impacted employees with empathy and respect,” Hartmann writes. Affected workers will get severance, health insurance benefits, outplacement services, and paid time to conduct job searches, Amazon says.

These cuts come after Amazon already eliminated some 27,000 employees so far this year, including members of the Twitch team.

“I recognize that the impact of these decisions is not just to the business, but to our teammates and friends,” Hartmann wrote. “It never feels good to say goodbye to colleagues, and I thank you for supporting them as they work through this change.”

Amazon’s gaming efforts date back to 2012 when it launched what was then known as Amazon Game Studios. Following the cancellation of its first competitive brawler, Breakaway, in 2018, Amazon Games launched Crucible in 2020, only to axe it later that year. PC game New World, however, enjoyed some early success in 2021, and MMOARPG Lost Ark became the second most-played game on Steam within 24 hours of its February 2022 release.

“I am confident in the direction we are headed,” says Hartmann, who took over as Amazon Games VP a year ago.

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