Amazon has decided to lay off more than 100 employees for the gaming business
Following the confirmation of cutting approximately 9,000 employees by the end of April, involving AWS, human resources, advertising, and Twitch-related businesses, Amazon has recently announced plans to lay off over 100 employees within its gaming division. This is expected to impact Prime Gaming services, gaming business teams, and members of the game studio located in San Diego, California.
However, according to internal memos obtained by Bloomberg, game studios in Irvine, California, and Montreal, Canada, will not be affected for the time being. On the contrary, these studios will expand their workforce to continue investing in Amazon’s exclusive game, “New World,” and other unannounced projects.
As indicated in the internal memos, Amazon’s future gaming strategy will prioritize key projects. Games that are unable to generate profits in the short term or struggle to identify greater profit opportunities will have their development discontinued.
Amazon explained that these adjustments were made with long-term goals in mind, ultimately leading to the decision to lay off employees. Affected staff members will receive severance pay, transitional salary, and health insurance benefits.
After announcing the layoff of approximately 18,000 employees in January and subsequently cutting an additional 9,000 employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated that these actions would streamline Amazon’s business structure and focus more resources on critical customer experiences. He emphasized that the company would continue to invest in AWS cloud services, online services, and essential new business developments.