Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games, has revealed that the layoffs are due to a restructuring of the company and that some employees will be reassigned to other projects.
Amazon has announced through a statement its intention to cut more than 100 employees from its video games division. Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann said the layoffs will be spread across the company’s Games Growth group, its San Diego development studio and Amazon Prime Gaming. Despite the bad news, it has also been reported that some employees will also be reassigned to other projects “that match” the “strategic focus” the company has at the moment.
The cuts in Amazon’s gaming division are, as expected, part of a broader restructuring of the company. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he planned to lay off another 9,000 employees, in addition to the 18,000 job cuts announced earlier this year. “It’s never pleasant to deliver this kind of news, but we are committed to treating our affected employees with empathy and respect, and we will support them by offering severance pay, health insurance, outplacement services and paid time to look for work,” Hartmann said.
What will happen to the New World team?
“Going forward, our resources will be aligned to support our focus on content. We will continue to invest in our internal development efforts, and our teams will continue to grow as our projects move forward: The New World team in Irvine will grow as we shift some resources to continue to support its ongoing development. Our Montreal studio will continue to expand, and is making great progress on its unannounced project. And the San Diego studio will be doubling down on the pre-production phase of its unannounced game, as that project is not yet ready for a full production-size team. complete.
We are optimizing our teams to ensure that Amazon Games and Prime Gaming deliver solid value and enriching experiences for our customers.
“We will also continue to expand our publishing efforts, and we remain very active in exploring and signing new projects where we see great potential, such as our recent publishing deal with NCSOFT. And finally, we are optimizing our retail and backend-focused teams to ensure that Amazon Games and Prime Gaming deliver solid value and enriching experiences for our customers, and we are adjusting team sizes accordingly.”