Schreier: Layoffs at Amazon Will Hit Gaming Teams Hard
Yesterday, October 28, Amazon officially announced plans to lay off 14,000 people. While the company has not publicly stated whether its gaming division will be affected, Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier asserts that it will be — and significantly so.
New World: Aeternum
In an internal letter from Amazon that Schreier reviewed, the decision to part ways with a "significant" number of gaming specialists is mentioned. Most affected will be employees from the studios in San Diego and Irvine, as well as the central publishing team.
Additionally, Schreier notes that Amazon will place less emphasis on developing its own big-budget games. Instead, the company plans to focus on what it "does best." For example, expanding the Luna cloud gaming service.
Nevertheless, Amazon Games Montreal will continue working on the strategy game March of Giants. The corporation will also maintain its partnership with Crystal Dynamics on the next installment of Tomb Raider. The layoffs will not impact the development of a racing game by Maverick Games.
Meanwhile, Amazon has already announced that it will cease support for New World: Aeternum. The game will stop receiving new content, but its servers will remain operational at least until 2026.