It’s been a tough year for the gaming industry, and unfortunately, the layoffs continue. Amazon Games has recently confirmed that it will be laying off 180 employees. The affected departments include the Amazon-Twitch channel Crown Channel and the Game Growth team.
The news of the layoffs was first reported by Nathan Grayson from Aftermath and later confirmed by Amazon. This year has seen numerous layoffs across various sectors of the gaming industry, from studios to publishers to gaming journalism.
In an email to employees obtained by Aftermath, Christoph Hartmann, VP of Amazon Games, explained the reasoning behind the layoffs. He stated that they have listened to their customers and recognized that delivering free games every month is what they want most. As a result, Amazon is refining its Prime benefit to focus more on this aspect. Unfortunately, this change in business approach has led to the elimination of over 180 roles.
Hartmann acknowledged the difficulty of this news and expressed empathy for the impact it will have on the affected employees. He assured them that this decision was not made lightly and was the result of extensive considerations and planning for the future.
The Crown Channel, which served as a paid front-page advertisement on Twitch, will be discontinued along with the Game Growth team. Despite the teams’ efforts in providing weekly content on Crown Channel and helping publishers reach new audiences with Game Growth, further evaluation of the business led to the decision to reallocate resources and focus on delivering great games to players now and in the future.
Amazon Games will now prioritize Prime Gaming, which offers free in-game items to players subscribed to Amazon Prime. This service has already partnered with popular games such as League of Legends, VALORANT, Call of Duty, and Destiny 2.
Overall, the layoffs at Amazon Games reflect the ongoing challenges faced by the gaming industry this year. It is a difficult decision for the leadership team, but they believe it is necessary to ensure a strong focus on delivering quality games to players.
Source: DOTESPORTS
