Amazon just sent more than 180 employees from its gaming division home indefinitely and is also altering some of its gaming initiatives, according to a leaked email sent to laid-off Amazon employees.
“After our initial restructuring in April, it became clear that we needed to focus our resources even more on the areas that are growing with the greatest potential to drive our business,” Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games, said in the email. .
The company also plans to trim its Crown Channel and Game Growth initiatives and focus more on Prime Gaming.
“We’ve listened to our customers and know that offering free games every month is what they want most, so we’re refining our Prime benefit to increase our focus there,” Hartmann wrote.
This isn’t the first time Amazon has cut its gaming division. In April, it laid off about 100 employees, but said staff had been reassigned to projects “that match our strategic focus,” according to a memo obtained by CNBC.
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The new round of layoffs comes a week later fired an unknown number of employees in its music department, specifically affecting Amazon Music’s audio content and editorial team. The online retail giant has cut about 27,000 people over the year, with January’s layoffs leading the largest round of job cuts that left 18,000 people unemployed.
The recent moves to cut jobs appear to be part of a broader initiative by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to cut costs.
“We will work hard to spend wisely and maintain our lean culture,” Jassy said in his 2022 report. letter to shareholders. “We understand the importance of continually reinforcing a cost-conscious culture, particularly in a company that incurs net losses.”
You can read Hartmann’s full leaked email about the company’s latest round of job cuts in the gaming division below:
Hello everyone,
I have some important news to share with all of you today about the future of our business.
As I’ve shared previously, our goal for Amazon Games is to become one of the leading creators of high-quality gaming content that delights gamers for years to come. Part of this bold vision involves experimentation as we explore what players want most and periodically review these experiments to ensure we’re creating the biggest impact.
After our initial restructuring in April, it became clear that we needed to focus our resources even more on the areas that are growing and have the greatest potential to drive our business. As such, the leadership team and I made the difficult decision to close two of our initiatives: Crown Channel and Game Growth. We are also refocusing our efforts on Prime Gaming. We’ve listened to our customers and know that offering free games every month is what they want most, so we’re refining our Prime benefit to increase our focus there. These changes to our business approach come with changes to our resources, resulting in the elimination of just over 180 roles.
I know this is difficult news and the impact will be widely felt. It never feels good to say goodbye to colleagues. This is not a decision that the leadership team made quickly; It was the result of extensive considerations and a roadmap for our future. We’re proud of the work the teams have been doing, moving into new areas with weekly content on Crown Channel and finding more ways to help publishers reach new audiences with Game Growth. But after a more thorough evaluation of our businesses, it became clear that we need to focus our resources and efforts on delivering great games to players now and in the future.
Every employee whose role has been affected should now have a live meeting scheduled this morning so we can discuss these changes directly. We are also working to ensure that all affected employees receive the support they need on an individual level, including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits and more. Your managers, business leaders, and HRBP are available to chat, and we have a licensed advisor available 24/7 through our Employee Assistance Program.
I recognize that this is the second time this year that you have heard about team changes across the organization and seen colleagues leave, so let me be very clear when I say this: I remain confident in our future. We are developing and publishing great games with high potential, our studio teams are growing, and our roadmap is bright. We are focused on our next editorial releases to Throne and freedom and blue protocolas well as future projects like ours Grave Raider and The Lord of the rings games and our projects with Glowmade and Disruptive Games. Our internal studios are actively recruiting and hiring to fill critical roles as they develop new intellectual property, while Prime Gaming continues to secure deals and deliver engaging content for members each month. “We are committed to our vision of becoming one of the leading developers and publishers of high-quality games, and focusing our resources accordingly will help us achieve this.”
