The series of Amazon layoffs continue as the company recently announced letting go of more than 100 employees. The affected workers come from Amazon's video games division, as the tech giant suffers from the post-pandemic economy, as well as the lukewarm reception of the public towards its published game projects.
Amazon Weighs Its Current Gaming Projects to Align With the Company's Long-Term Goals
As reported by Bloomberg, Amazon Games' VP Christoph Hartmann said through an internal memo directed to the staffers that "just over" 100 workers across gaming divisions will be let go. These divisions include Prime Gaming, Game Growth and the San Diego studio of Amazon Games.
"There is never a pleasant way to share this sort of news, but we are committed to treating our impacted employees with empathy and respect, and will support them by offering them severance pay, health insurance benefits, outplacement services, and paid time to conduct their job search," Hartmann stated.
On the same day that the memo was released, employees affected by the latest round of Amazon layoffs were called for a meeting with the human resources department to break the news. This is according to CNBC, whose source is a laid-off Amazon employee who requested anonymity.
Hartmann said that some employees not affected by the layoffs will be assigned to projects that are aligned with the "strategic focus" of Amazon. Despite this recent turn of events, the executive revealed that there are teams from the gaming department that should expect growth. These are the teams in Irvine, which are behind Amazon Games' online role-playing game New World, and the Montreal teams which are currently developing an unnamed project.
The memo did not explain further the reason behind the latest Amazon layoffs. At this point, the company is said to be focused on its "long-term goals," according to Engadget, which led to the decision to lay off some employees.
Related Article: 9,000 More Amazon Employees Will Be Laid Off in the Coming Weeks
Amazon Games Makes Efforts to Survive
Amazon has been trying to deliver a hit game title with the launch of Amazon Games in 2023. It even hired great minds from renowned gaming companies like Sony Online Entertainment, as per CNBC. Unfortunately, the game titles published by the company fell short of public expectations. For example, Amazon Games' free-to-play first-person shooter game, Crucible, was only made available for a few months before the game was shut down.
Aside from the staffers, the executive lineup from Amazon's gaming divisions has been experiencing a shakeup as well. Mike Frazzino, who was among the executives who helped built Amazon Games, resigned from his post last March. John Smedley, who led the San Diego studio of Amazon Games, also stepped down in January.
As a whole, Amazon is not having a great start as the company suffers from the post-pandemic effect. Amazon enjoyed the uptick in demand for its services as more people were stuck in their homes during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Now that the restrictions eased up, the company has experienced a dip in sales.
With this, Amazon started the layoffs of thousands of employees this year. In March, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that around 9,000 employees will be laid off in the coming months. Hiring freeze has also been implemented and some experimental projects like the telehealth service and sidewalk delivery robot have been shut down.
