Amazon Cuts Over 100 Games Division Jobs

Amazon has laid off more than 100 employees in its Games division and reassigned some others.

The moves come after the division evaluated its “current projects against [its] long-term goals,” Amazon Games Vice President Christoph Hartmann wrote in a Tuesday (April 4) internal staff memo provided to PYMNTS by Amazon.

“Going forward, our resources will be aligned to support our focus on content,” Hartmann said in the memo. “We will continue to invest in our internal development efforts, and our teams will continue to grow as our projects progress.”

The 100 roles that are being eliminated are across Prime Gaming, Game Growth and the San Diego studio, according to the memo.

Amazon Games will continue with an unannounced project that’s underway at its Montreal studio and an unannounced game that’s in pre-production at its San Diego studio, will keep expanding its publishing efforts, and will optimize its retail and back-end teams at Amazon Games and Prime Gaming, the memo said.

“I am confident in the direction we are headed,” Hartmann said in the memo. “Amazon Games has gained momentum over the past couple of years thanks to your hard work, dedication and commitment to players. We’ve launched two games and have seven more projects announced, with even more in the pipeline, in addition to the new Crown shows and Prime Gaming content we have lined up.”

This announcement is the latest in an ongoing series of job cuts at Amazon.

The firm said March 20 it would lay off 9,000 employees in its cloud computing, Twitch livestream and advertising departments.

Those cuts came on top of the 18,000 positions Amazon eliminated in January, which primarily impacted the company’s Amazon Stores and People, Experience and Technology (PXT) branches.

The firm has announced the cuts in different rounds because teams across the organizations are completing their assessments at different times and Amazon is sharing the decisions when they are made, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said March 20.

“For several years leading up to this one, most of our businesses added a significant amount of headcount,” Jassy said at the time. “This made sense given what was happening in our businesses and the economy as a whole. However, given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount.”