Amazon lays off 180 staff from games division | Pocket Gamer.biz

Amazon has laid off around 180 staff from its game division, according to an internal memo sent to staff.

As reported by The Verge, the tech giant is closing down its Crown Channel on Twitch and marketing initiative Game Growth. Moving forward, the company is set to “refocus” its efforts on Prime Gaming, which offers free games and content to Amazon Prime subscribers.

Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann said the move was needed to “focus our resources even more on the areas that are growing with the highest potential to drive our business forward”.

“We’ve listened to our customers and we know delivering free games every month is what they want most, so we are refining our Prime benefit to increase our focus there,” said Hartmann.

“With these changes in our business approach come changes to our resourcing, resulting in the elimination of just over 180 roles.”

Amazon said affected staff would be given severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits.

Job cuts continue

Hartmann noted that despite the layoffs, the company was still growing its studio teams and has a number of open positions.

Amazon had previously cut more than 100 jobs from its games division in April earlier this year. Reuters reports the company is also currently enacting redundancies across its streaming music and podcast division.

During the past year, Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees.

“I recognize that this is the second time this year that you are hearing about org-wide team changes and seeing colleagues go, so let me be very clear when I say this: I remain confident in our future,” said Hartmann.