Home Industry Gaming and VFX Amazon is ending its Twitch ga...
Gaming and VFX
Business Fortune
16 November, 2023
In a memo to staff, Vice President of Amazon Games Christoph Hartmann stated that the company is reducing "just over" 180 positions in its games division and altering some of its initiatives.
The changes include closing its Crown channel on Twitch, halting its Game Growth program to help indie game developers promote their products, and "refocusing" its efforts on the free games on Prime Gaming.
Hartmann expressed their pride in the teams' performance in the message, noting that they were branching out with weekly programming on Crown Channel and developing new methods to support publishers in reaching new audiences through Game Growth. However, it became evident from a more thorough analysis of their companies that the corporation needed to concentrate its resources and efforts in order to provide gamers with fantastic games both now and in the future.
With regard to the free games available through Prime Gaming (which you can access if you own an Amazon Prime membership), Hartmann said that the company was enhancing the Prime benefit because they had paid close attention to their customers' feedback and discovered that monthly free game offers was what they wanted most.
The latest adjustments come after around 100 employees in Amazon's games division were laid off in April. Employees at the company's San Diego studio, Game Growth, and Prime Gaming were impacted by the layoffs. In general, thousands of positions have been slashed by Amazon this year.