According to a Bloomberg report, Amazon Games has laid off around 100 employees from its Prime Gaming, Game Growth and San Diego studio divisions. However, Amazon Games has confirmed that its teams working on the New World and an unannounced project will continue to develop. Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games, said the company will continue to invest in internal development efforts, with teams growing as projects progress.
The San Diego studio’s project is still in pre-production, and Hartmann said the company will double down on this phase. Meanwhile, the Montreal studio will continue to expand.
While the cuts are significant, they are relatively small considering that Amazon recently laid off more than 27,000 employees. Hartmann also confirmed that the New World team will continue to grow. The Irvine, Calif.-based team recently released its first new season as part of its move to a quarterly content model.
Although Amazon has downsized, it has managed to publish games. For example, the company published the Smilegate RPG Lost Ark and secured publishing deals for highly anticipated games like Bandai Namco’s Blue Protocol and NCSoft’s Throne and Liberty.
Amazon has provided affected employees with severance pay, health insurance, paid time off to seek work, and outplacement services. Hartmann has confirmed that the Montreal and Irvine New World studios will continue to expand. Additionally, he mentioned that new Crown Channel programs and Prime Gaming content are being worked on, and there are more projects in development.