This week, during E3, Amazon laid off a number of employees from its game development studios. The company says it is working with affected employees to move them to other divisions within Amazon, and that “these moves are the result of regular business planning cycles where we align resources to match evolving, long-range priorities.”
In a statement, Amazon confirms the layoffs but does not mention many specifics. According to a report from Kotaku, dozens of employees have been affected, and will have 60 days to find something new within Amazon – otherwise, they’ll receive a severance package and be released from the company.
Some number of unannounced games have also been cancelled, according to the report. In its statement, Amazon says that it aims to “prioritize development of New World, Crucible, and new unannounced projects we’re excited to reveal in the future” – so clearly those titles are still in the works, but we’ve been waiting years to see what comes from any of Amazon’s bigger game projects.
The studio has launched a number of mobile and other small titles over the past few years, but titles like Breakaway have been cancelled and big-name designers like Clint Hocking have moved on to new studios.
The only major launch from Amazon’s game endeavours has been Lumberyard, a modified version of CryEngine that was chosen to power Star Citizen a handful of years ago.