Amazon Games has not been as successful as Amazon hoped.
Amazon is one of those international giants that has succeeded in almost every market. After the success of Twitch, they created Amazon Games, a way for Jeff Bezos to conquer the video game industry. However, New World and Lost Ark have shown Amazon that it is not as easy as it seems.
That is why Amazon Games has had to make the decision to make a series of staff cuts in order to obtain better results. Therefore, more than 100 workers have had to say goodbye to the company. More Amazon workers have been left without work by the bad decisions of the board.
A project that was destined to fail
Amazon Games entered the video game industry betting on a very competitive genre: MMORPG. It was clearly a competitive genre with great existing franchises such as World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy Online. But, if it made the right moves, Amazon Games would have a secure future.
However, this has not been the case. Amazon Games focused its strategy with these games on loot boxes and the hated “pay to win”. This has worked to some extent in Asian markets, but these formats have scared off players worldwide. Therefore, all the goals that were set by Amazon Games were not as positive as expected.
So, as is now common at Amazon, when things are not going well, they make a strong decision. In this case, they have taken the decision again to cut the workforce. Well, Amazon Games has fired more than 100 workers who have been part of both the New World and Lost Ark projects.
The goal of this change is to achieve a positive change in Amazon Games. However, from the beginning, this project was destined to fail. Trying to force a game genre and format on a new audience is never a good idea. Hopefully, with these changes, Amazon Games will be able to offer something more appealing to the industry. Even more importantly, hopefully they leave behind the “pay to win” models.
