Amazon to Cut 14,000 Jobs, Gaming Division Hit Hard

Amazon is laying off more than 14,000 employees. This is one of its largest job cuts in years. The video game division is taking a heavy hit.

A memo was sent to staff this week informing them of the cuts. The memo says offices in Irvine and San Diego will lose staff. Also, Amazon’s main publishing team will be reduced. The company also plans to slow down or stop work on some high-budget games. This will mostly hit large online multiplayer titles.

Steve Boom, Amazon’s VP in charge of Audio, Twitch, and Gaming, said the company is now focusing on “what Amazon does best.” This marks a shift away from big, expensive game projects toward smaller, more manageable ones.

Amazon is putting more effort into its Luna cloud gaming platform. The Montreal studio will keep working on the strategy game March of Giants. Luna will also get more casual and AI-driven games.

External studios are still involved, too. Crystal Dynamics in San Francisco is working on the next Tomb Raider, while Maverick Games in the UK is making a new racing game.

Amazon has tried for over a decade to make a mark in video games. It has had a few wins, like publishing the Korean MMORPG Lost Ark, but overall, it hasn’t become a major player. It's a 2021 game.

New World once had over 900,000 players online at the same time, but the excitement didn’t last. Amazon also worked on an MMO based on The Lord of the Rings, which never made it to release.

Amazon confirmed that the latest New World update, including Season 10 and the Nighthaven expansion, will be the last. The game’s servers will stay online until 2026, but there won’t be any new content. “Continuing development is no longer sustainable,” the company said.

Recent releases show the new direction for Amazon’s gaming efforts. The company launched Courtroom Chaos, an AI-driven party game featuring a digital Snoop Dogg, on Luna.

Earlier this month, it released King of Meat, another party game that struggled to find players, peaking at just 253 on Steam. These moves show Amazon is stepping back from big ambitions and focusing on smaller, more practical projects.