Amazon kills off Amazon Game Studios

[Dark Drakan]

Another dark day in the gaming industry as Amazon announced last night that its gaming division would be hit with significant layoffs amid strategic changes for its games development. They are moving away from MMO development entirely.

Over 14,000 jobs were cut overnight and they have said its hit MMO New World will receive no more content updates and be moved to “maintenance mode” through 2026. Pretty much the entire team have been laid off so Amazon can concentrate on investments into AI.

Such a shame to see New Worlds development end this way after it had seemed to turn another corner lately and players had been coming back after the excellent Nighthaven update for season 10 and making the Expansion free for everyone.

Their currently in development Lord of the Ring MMO will also be cancelled.

Statement from Amazon​

 

[Quistrix]

Apparently the new Tomb Raider game won’t be affected, thankfully.

Otherwise, a big shame for the folks losing their jobs. **** Amazon.

 

[bart]

The turn to Ai for profit, besides all of the layoffs is such a gross display of greed and disvalue of artists and the talent/passion they provide.

 

[Dark Drakan]

For the development hell that it launched in, with the suits of Amazon Game Studios making the developers switch the game from PvP game to an MMO with survival game elements at such short notice they managed a miracle.

The base game engine was never designed to be an MMO and for them to not only pull it off, but improve it over 4 years to the best state the game could be in the developers deserve credit. Really hope they manage to get jobs within other studios as the combat, sound design and crafting/gathering systems were superb.