The layoffs announced by Amazon this Tuesday across its corporate workforce also affect its gaming division, where the reduction will focus on high-budget titles.
The American e-commerce giant has announced a reduction of approximately 14,000 employees from its corporate staff, those who perform administrative and office tasks.
The layoffs also extend to the gaming division, as detailed in a memo obtained by Bloomberg, in which Steve Boom, Vice President of Audio, Twitch, and Gaming, stated that the company is “leanning on the things Amazon does best.”
Specifically, the staff reduction will affect the Amazon Game Studios offices located in Irvine and San Diego, as well as the central publishing division. The Montreal studio behind the strategy game March of Giants, Crystal Dynamics, developing a new Tomb Raider, and Maverick Games, working on a racing title, will remain active.
The memo indicates that Amazon will focus on “casual and AI-driven games” for its cloud service, reducing its efforts on big-budget titles, specifically massively multiplayer online games (MMOs).
The PC MMO New World will no longer receive new content and will maintain its servers until 2026, as announced by the tech company. Season 10 and the Nighthaven update are the last new features available to players.
