{"id":1550,"date":"2025-10-28T22:57:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/amazon-is-ditching-mmos-and-cranking-out-party-games\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T22:57:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:57:31","slug":"amazon-is-ditching-mmos-and-cranking-out-party-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/amazon-is-ditching-mmos-and-cranking-out-party-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon is ditching MMOs and cranking out party games"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"

\n\tA screenshot from Throne and Liberty, one of Amazon\u2019s MMOs.\t<\/figcaption><\/p><\/figure>\n

As part of Amazon\u2019s mass layoffs announced today<\/a>, the company is making \u201csignificant\u201d changes to its gaming division, including halting much of its work on first-party AAA MMOs, according to a memo from Steve Boom, VP of audio, Twitch, and games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re proud of our successes in first-party AAA game development and publishing, we have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work \u2013 specifically around MMOs \u2013 within Amazon Game Studios, including making significant role reductions in our studios in Irvine and San Diego, as well as our central publishing team,\u201d Boom says in the memo, which Amazon shared with The Verge<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s MMO lineup currently includes New World: Aeternum<\/em>, Throne and Liberty<\/em>, and Lost Ark<\/em> (which had a hot start in 2022<\/a>), and in 2023, Amazon announced that it would be developing a Lord of the Rings<\/em> MMO<\/a> in partnership with Embracer Group. Last year, Amazon cancelled a planned western release<\/a> of the Bandai Namco-developed MMO Blue Protocol<\/em>, which was shuttered in Japan in January.<\/p>\n

The company isn\u2019t fully pulling back on its work in games. Boom pointed to the launch of the revamped Luna<\/a> and said that its Studio 5 team, which developed a courtroom game with an AI Snoop Dogg<\/a> for the cloud gaming service, will \u201ccontinue their focus on more casual and AI-focused games, optimized for Luna.\u201d He also said Luna is a \u201cgreat example\u201d of \u201chow we will have an impact with customers that fits the scale of Amazon\u201d because it \u201cleans into both streaming entertainment and delivering value for Prime members.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Boom highlighted a \u201csuccessful closed alpha\u201d for the MOBA March of the Giants<\/em><\/a> and noted that Amazon is still working with Crystal Dynamics on a new Tomb Raider<\/em> game<\/a> (Amazon is also making a Tomb Raider<\/em> series<\/a>) and with Maverick Games on a new open world driving game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can read Boom\u2019s full memo below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Dear Games Team,<\/p>\n

This morning, we are making a number of changes in our Games business. While you\u2019ve likely seen Beth Galetti\u2019s note earlier this morning regarding the larger changes at Amazon that are taking place today, I wanted to dive a bit deeper with all of you, since the strategic changes we are making in Games go beyond what is happening company-wide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the last several months, we\u2019ve been evaluating our go-forward plans, specifically through the lens of our mission to deliver the very best gaming experiences to customers while leaning into the things that Amazon does best. We believe that this is how we will have an impact with customers that fits the scale of Amazon. Last week\u2019s launch of the all-new Luna is a great example, as it leans into both streaming entertainment and delivering value for Prime members, two tenets that are always top of mind in our group. Luna launched with a great catalog of social party games and AAA blockbusters, and we have a lot more to come from Jeff\u2019s team on that front\u2026it\u2019s still Day 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also taken a critical look at the evolving dynamics of games industry and competitive landscape. While we\u2019re proud of our successes in first-party AAA game development and publishing, we have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work \u2013 specifically around MMOs \u2013 within Amazon Game Studios, including making significant role reductions in our studios in Irvine and San Diego, as well as our central publishing team.<\/p>\n

While these changes are significant, we still have a lot going on in game development. Our Montreal studio recently concluded a successful closed alpha of March of Giants and is working hard to finish the game. Our Studio 5 team just released Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg<\/em> as the launch title in Luna and will continue their focus on more casual and AI-focused games, optimized for Luna. Finally, we are continuing to work with our external studio partners Crystal Dynamics on an upcoming Tomb Raider<\/em> title and Maverick Games on an upcoming open world driving game.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the day, both Christoph and Jeff will reach out with more details on how these changes will affect you and your teams. Most countries with impacted employees have been notified. Our other global hubs will follow local processes and be notified at a later date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no getting around the fact that days like this are hard, and we will be losing team members whose work and dedication have had an incredible impact on our customers over the years. We don\u2019t make these decisions lightly, and yet they are necessary for us to continue to drive our business forward.<\/p>\n

Please reach out directly to your manager or to your HRBP with any specific questions.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n

Steve<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A screenshot from Throne and Liberty, one of Amazon\u2019s MMOs. As part of Amazon\u2019s mass layoffs announced today, the company […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}