The publication Aftermath reported via a report, quickly confirmed by AmazonThat over 180 people were fired come on gaming teams of the e-commerce giant. This includes the entirety of the Crown Channel, an Amazon-backed Twitch channel, and the Game Growth team, a team aiming to refocus Prime Gaming efforts.
“We’ve listened to our customers and know that offering free games every month is what they want most, so we’re refining Prime to focus more on that. These changes in our business approach also mean changes in our resources, resulting in the elimination of just over 180 roles,” he wrote Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Gamesin the email sent to employees and officially confirmed.
“I know it’s one difficult news and that the impact will be felt by everyone,” added Hartmann. “It’s never nice to say goodbye to colleagues. This is not a hasty decision made by the leadership team, but the result of extensive reflection and analysis of our future. We’re proud of the work the teams have done, pushing into new areas with Crown Channel’s weekly content and finding more ways to help publishers reach new audiences with Game Growth. But after further evaluation of our operations, it became clear that we must focus our resources and efforts on bringing great games to players, now and in the future.”
Crown Channel and its background
Crown Channel was an attempt by the company to create synergy between Amazon and Twitch, the livestreaming platform that Amazon has owned since 2014. While managing to stage elaborate events featuring countless streaming stars and the occasional mainstream celebrity, the channel did not has never succeeded in establishing itself. Earlier this year, a Bloomberg report found that the channel’s viewership was artificially inflated.
Clearly the results did not arrive and Amazon decided that there was no more room for this initiative. However, it does not appear that the layoffs have affected the video game development team owned by Amazon.
There are many companies that have laid off staff this year, not least Unity which is ready for further staff cuts, after having already laid off 900 people this year.
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