Amazon Game Studios employees laid off under the buzz of E3
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This past week-or-so, every games journalist under the sun has been writing about E3. It’s the biggest event of the year: the majority of major announcements – such as the reveal of Xbox Scarlett – happen at E3. With all eyes away, Amazon struck and laid off dozens of employees at Amazon Game Studios.
Since 2012, Amazon Game Studios has been hard at work on the company’s ambitious MMOs Crucible and New World. Just last year, the developer released the video game adaptation of The Grand Tour. With studios in San Diego, California, Orange County and Seattle, Amazon has laid off a large number of employees.
According to a report by Kotaku, Amazon has also cancelled numerous unannounced titles. According to an unnamed source, Amazon told employees that they would have 60 days to look for new positions within the companies other mediums. Those who are unable to find employment will receive a severance package.
“Amazon Game Studios is reorganizing some of our teams to allow us to prioritize development of New World, Crucible, and new unannounced projects we’re excited to reveal in the future,” Amazon said in a statement.
“These moves are the result of regular business planning cycles where we align resources to match evolving, long-range priorities. We’re working closely with all employees affected by these changes to assist them in finding new roles within Amazon. Amazon is deeply committed to games and continues to invest heavily in Amazon Game Studios, Twitch, Twitch Prime, AWS, our retail businesses, and other areas within Amazon.”
Despite being formed with numerous veteran game developers within their ranks, the developer has only been able to ship a single game thus far. Developers like Clint Hocking, creative director of Far Cry 2, has moved back to Ubisoft for Watch Dogs Legion, and Portal director Kim Swift has also left the company.
Amazon’s CryEngine-based game engine Lumberyard has failed to see the success the company was banking on. Only the aforementioned The Grand Tour game and twin-stick fighting game Coffence have seen release on the engine.
