{"id":338977,"date":"2025-10-28T18:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338977\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T18:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:54:13","slug":"amazon-games-hit-by-layoffs-will-halt-aaa-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/338977\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Games Hit by Layoffs, Will Halt AAA Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAmid sweeping layoffs<\/a> that began throughout ecommerce giant Amazon<\/a> Tuesday, the company is making \u201csignificant\u201d changes to its video games business. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe move comes on the heels of Amazon launching new game \u201cKing of Meat\u201d (pictured above), and just as the company had unveiled its revamped cloud-gaming platform Luna and outlined plans to continue internal development on big-budget AAA titles (including massively multiplayer online games) alongside its new push for party games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn undisclosed number of cuts have been made in the Amazon Game Studios business, as first reported by Bloomberg\u2019s Jason Schrier <\/a>and confirmed by Variety, as part of the overall elimination of 14,000 corporate workers at Amazon this week. <\/p>\n

\n\tAmazon audio, Twitch and games boss Steve Boom says that while the layoffs are happening in connection with the overall company cuts, these reductions also indicate a larger strategy shift within the games business, which consists of Amazon Game Studios, led by Christoph Hartmann, and Amazon Luna, overseen by Jeff Gattis.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOver the last several months, we\u2019ve been evaluating our go-forward plans, specifically through the lens of our mission to deliver the very best gaming experiences to customers while leaning into the things that Amazon does best,\u201d Boom wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday, which was obtained by Variety. \u201cWe believe that this is how we will have an impact with customers that fits the scale of Amazon. Last week\u2019s launch of the all-new Luna is a great example, as it leans into both streaming entertainment and delivering value for Prime members, two tenets that are always top of mind in our group. Luna launched with a great catalog of social party games and AAA blockbusters, and we have a lot more to come from Jeff\u2019s team on that front\u2026it\u2019s still Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBoom added: \u201cWe\u2019ve also taken a critical look at the evolving dynamics of games industry and competitive landscape. While we\u2019re proud of our successes in first-party AAA game development and publishing, we have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work \u2013 specifically around MMOs \u2013 within Amazon Game Studios, including making significant role reductions in our studios in Irvine and San Diego, as well as our central publishing team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Boom, Amazon is \u201ccontinuing to work with our external studio partners Crystal Dynamics on an upcoming \u2018Tomb Raider\u2019 title and Maverick Games on an upcoming open world driving game,\u201d as Amazon\u2019s Montreal game studio is finishing work on its \u201cMarch of Giants\u201d game, while Studio 5 (the team behind Luna\u2019s new \u201cCourtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg\u201d) \u201cwill continue their focus on more casual and AI-focused games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week, Amazon Luna relaunched (the cloud-gaming service first debuted in 2022) with a new lineup of premium third-party games, including \u201cHogwarts Legacy\u201d and Xbox\u2019s \u201cIndiana Jones and the Great Circle,\u201d and a UI update, as well as a party game collection labeled \u201cGameNight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this month<\/a>, Boom told Variety that the overhaul of Luna didn\u2019t signal a shift away from Amazon developing its own AAA titles, but that it did indicate plans to focus more on \u201cconsole-friendly titles, known IPs or known play patterns.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf you were to trace the arc of what we\u2019ve released and what we\u2019ve now announced from our games studio, it would actually point in this direction,\u201d Boom said. \u201cSo what started out in massively multiplayer games, MMOs, we\u2019ve really widened the aperture, if you will. And so you\u2019ve seen announcements for like things like \u2018King of Meat,\u2019 \u2018Tomb Raider,\u2019 our upcoming driving game, \u2018Lord of the Rings,\u2019 and kind of moving more in that direction of what I would call console-friendly titles, known IPs or known play patterns. The MMOs, those are really PC games. We launched \u2018New World\u2019 on consoles about a year ago, and it\u2019s done really, really well, but those games at their core appeal to the hardest core-PC gamers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSee below for Boom\u2019s Tuesday memo to staff in its entirety.<\/p>\n

\n\tDear Games Team,<\/p>\n

\n\tThis morning, we are making a number of changes in our Games business. While you\u2019ve likely seen Beth Galetti\u2019s note earlier this morning regarding the larger changes at Amazon that are taking place today, I wanted to dive a bit deeper with all of you, since the strategic changes we are making in Games go beyond what is happening company-wide.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the last several months, we\u2019ve been evaluating our go-forward plans, specifically through the lens of our mission to deliver the very best gaming experiences to customers while leaning into the things that Amazon does best. We believe that this is how we will have an impact with customers that fits the scale of Amazon. Last week\u2019s launch of the all-new Luna is a great example, as it leans into both streaming entertainment and delivering value for Prime members, two tenets that are always top of mind in our group. Luna launched with a great catalog of social party games and AAA blockbusters, and we have a lot more to come from Jeff\u2019s team on that front\u2026it\u2019s still Day 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019ve also taken a critical look at the evolving dynamics of games industry and competitive landscape. While we\u2019re proud of our successes in first-party AAA game development and publishing, we have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work \u2013 specifically around MMOs \u2013 within Amazon Game Studios, including making significant role reductions in our studios in Irvine and San Diego, as well as our central publishing team.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile these changes are significant, we still have a lot going on in game development. Our Montreal studio recently concluded a successful closed alpha of March of Giants and is working hard to finish the game. Our Studio 5 team just released Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg as the launch title in Luna and will continue their focus on more casual and AI-focused games, optimized for Luna. Finally, we are continuing to work with our external studio partners Crystal Dynamics on an upcoming Tomb Raider title and Maverick Games on an upcoming open world driving game.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the course of the day, both Christoph and Jeff will reach out with more details on how these changes will affect you and your teams. Most countries with impacted employees have been notified. Our other global hubs will follow local processes and be notified at a later date.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is no getting around the fact that days like this are hard, and we will be losing team members whose work and dedication have had an incredible impact on our customers over the years. We don\u2019t make these decisions lightly, and yet they are necessary for us to continue to drive our business forward.<\/p>\n

\n\tPlease reach out directly to your manager or to your HRBP with any specific questions.<\/p>\n

\n\tThank you,<\/p>\n

\n\tSteve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid sweeping layoffs that began throughout ecommerce giant Amazon Tuesday, the company is making \u201csignificant\u201d changes to its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":338978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2431,167300,64,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-338977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-amazon","9":"tag-amazon-games","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115453313979242083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}