Amazon has revealed in a message to staff (obtained by Bloomberg) that it is planning to move away from the production of MMOs, as well as making “significant” cuts to its video game business.
According to the message, Amazon is set to cut more than 14,000 corporate jobs, a large portion of which will impact its game development and publishing business. Steve Boom, Vice President of Audio, Twitch, and Games, stated that Amazon’s San Diego and Irvine studios have been hit heavily by these cuts.
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While we’re proud of our successes in first-party AAA game development and publishing, we have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work – specifically around MMOs – within Amazon Game Studios.
While these changes are significant, we still have a lot going on in game development. Our Montreal studio recently concluded a successful closed alpha of March of Giants and is working hard to finish the game. Our Studio 5 team just released Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg as the launch title in Luna and will continue their focus on more casual and AI-focused games, optimized for Luna. Finally, we are continuing to work with our external studio partners Crystal Dynamics on an upcoming Tomb Raider title and Maverick Games on an upcoming open world driving game.
The new Tomb Raider video game has been in the works for a while now, and is a collaborative effort between Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Games. The game has yet to be given an official reveal, although it has been confirmed that it will be a single-player, narrative-driven adventure, which is in line with previous entries.