Amazon is laying off 180 jobs in its games division, hopping on the tragically overcrowded bandwagon of layoffs in the game industry this year. The news comes via Aftermath, which reports that the layoffs are focused in two areas – the Crown Twitch channel, which will reportedly be eliminated altogether, and the game growth teams. Employees were notified of the changes through an email from Christoph Hartman, VP of Amazon Games. This is the second wave of layoffs this division of the company has faced this year.
An excerpt of the announcement email can be read below:
I know this is difficult news and that the impact will be felt widely. It never feels good to say goodbye to colleagues. This isn’t a decision the leadership team came to quickly; it was the result of extensive considerations and road mapping for our future. We are proud of the work the teams have been doing, pushing into new areas with weekly content on Crown Channel, and finding more ways to help publishers reach new audiences with Game Growth. But after further evaluation of our businesses, it became clear that we need focus our resources and efforts to deliver great games to players now and in the future.
There have been so many layoffs in the gaming industry this year that it’s getting hard to keep track of. Last week, we learned Free Radical Design is on the verge of closing down and that Ubisoft laid off more than 100 employees. The week before that, roughly 100 employees were laid off at Destiny 2 developer Bungie.
In January, Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees amidst its ongoing $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which it completed last month.
In August, Striking Distance Studios, the team behind last year’s The Callisto Protocol, laid off more than 30 employees, and that same month, Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare laid off 50 employees, including long-time studio veterans. The following month, in September, Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios laid off roughly 45% of its staff.
Just last month, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 employees, and Telltale Games underwent layoffs as well, although an actual number of laid-off employees has not yet been revealed. And in late October, Dreams developer Media Molecule laid off 20 employees.
The hearts of Game Informer‘s staff are with the people laid off from Amazon Games, along with everyone else who has lost a job this year.
[Source: Aftermath]
