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'Never a pleasant way to share this news': Amazon lays off 100 employees from gaming division

'Never a pleasant way to share this news': Amazon lays off 100 employees from gaming division

Amazon will be offering employees with severance pay, health insurance benefits, outplacement services, and paid time to conduct their job search

Amazon lays off 100 employees from its gaming division Amazon lays off 100 employees from its gaming division

Amazon has laid off around 100 employees from its video games division, according to a memo sent by Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games. The layoffs were part of a reorganization that included employees from Amazon's San Diego gaming studio and Prime Gaming, an offering aimed at members of Amazon's mainstay loyalty program.

Hartmann, in the memo cited by CNBC, claimed that some staff have been reassigned to other projects that match Amazon's strategic focus. Hartmann said, "There is never a pleasant way to share this sort of news". He further pledged to treat impacted employees with 'empathy and respect' and provide them with severance pay, health insurance benefits, outplacement services, and paid time to conduct their job search.

Regarding the layoffs, Hartmann wrote: "After evaluating our current projects against our long-term goals, the Games leadership team made the difficult decision to eliminate just over 100 roles across Prime Gaming, Game Growth and in our San Diego studio, while also reassigning some employees to other projects that match our strategic focus. Each employee whose role has been eliminated should now have a live meeting scheduled this morning so we can discuss these changes directly and give each employee an opportunity to ask questions."

Amazon's video games division has also struggled to produce a hit despite several published projects, with the company canceling its first big-budget game, Crucible, within a few months of release.

Hartmann emphasized that Amazon's games division would continue to invest in its internal development efforts and expand its publishing efforts, stating: "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 progress."

He also expressed confidence in the direction that Amazon Games is headed, stating: "Amazon Games has gained momentum over the past couple of years thanks to your hard work, dedication and commitment to players."

Also read: Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft cloud: How cloud services are boosting the pharma sector

Amazon Layoffs

This latest round of layoffs follows Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's announcement last month that Amazon would lay off an additional 9,000 employees, in addition to the previous round of cuts of more than 18,000 people. The company fired a total of 27,000 employees in a matter of months. 

Also read: After Google, Amazon, Meta the iPhone maker Apple may start laying off employees

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Published on: Apr 05, 2023, 10:01 AM IST
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