"New World"/Amazon Game Studios
- Amazon Game Studios has reportedly laid off dozens of employees.
- According to Kotaku, employees impacted by the layoffs have 60 days to find a new position within Amazon or accept a severance package.
- Amazon Game Studios has released just a handful of games since its founding.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Amazon recently laid off dozens of employees of Amazon Game Studios, the company’s internal video game development house.
According to a report from Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, employees impacted by the layoffs were told they have 60 days to look for another job within Amazon. An Amazon employee affected by the layoffs told Kotaku that those who don’t find a new position in the next two months will be given a severance package as they depart the company.
Kotaku reported that several upcoming titles from Amazon Game Studios were also cancelled as a result of the layoffs.
Amazon Game Studios was founded in 2012 but has released just a handful of games. So far all of the studio’s releases have been designed for mobile devices with one exception — "The Grand Tour Game" on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, based on the Amazon Prime original series of the same name.
Earlier this year Amazon Game Studios shared a preview build of an upcoming PC game called "New World," a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game that lets players establish their own colonies. "New World" was one of three PC games announced by Amazon Game Studios in 2016, along with "Crucible," a "Fortnite"-style battle royale game, and "Breakaway," an online battle arena game that has since been cancelled.
"New World"/Amazon Game Studios
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An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to Kotaku, and sent the following statement to Business Insider.
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. 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.
Read the original report over at Kotaku.
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Source: Business Insider – kwebb@businessinsider.com (Kevin Webb)