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Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees In Its Games Division - Aftermath (aftermath.site)

submitted 1 year ago by Goronmon@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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[-] Carighan@lemmy.world 76 points 1 year ago

I'll be honest, I am quite surprised they had 180 workers left there after the continuous stream of tepid stuff they've put out over time.

Still, sucks for the people working there, becuase I bet a lot of them at least started really driven and motivated before corporate ground their will down.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 12 points 1 year ago

Another example of under funded giant corporate projects and then shocked Pikachu that they aren't wildly profitable. They'll never understand you can make a wildly profitable game, but it requires investment

[-] Empricorn@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago

Or just y'know: provide a service, make a profit, provide people with stable jobs, keep on going. I know it sounds crazy, but you don't have to have all the money...

[-] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

It does require some actual inspiration as well. Companies are setting up production lines and wondering why solid gold doesn't just plop out the end when they switch it on.

[-] helloharu@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

It is an honest shame, there was a lot of talent brought in, but honestly not surprised it ended this way.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago

Talent that was wasted and discarded.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Is this your first experience with corporate america?

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

No, it was just especially egregious with Amazon in this scenario (and often in general with them ...)

They had some promising technology and talent, but focused on what creativity they could cram into the flywheel instead of coming up with something good that could then later feed back into the ecosystem. The latter process can yield surprise successes like the Amazon Echo.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Amazon has a games division?

[-] konalt@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

For only $20, the new Amazon Basics Grand Theft Auto.

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I would play that.

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Had. Briefly.

[-] Tygr@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I’m not understanding. As this is the first I’ve ever heard of this, I went to their site and it looks like freebies for games you play and games from other developers.

Did Amazon make their own games? If not, what were these 180 workers doing exactly?

[-] potterpockets@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 year ago

They made New World and were supposedly working on a LOTR MMO.

[-] drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 9 points 1 year ago

Didn't New Worlds turn into a ghost town month after launch?

[-] potterpockets@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah it cratered pretty hard, but they have been adding content to the game. Launch was a buggy clusterfuck.

[-] Selmafudd@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I played at launch and yeah the bugs is what drove most people away. They were exploited pretty hard, there was like a 4 or 5 day period there where 3 seperate dupes were discovered and they didn't do any roll backs

[-] neshura@bookwormstory.social 8 points 1 year ago

Not entirely well versed in the New World Saga but from what I've heard and read here's roughly what happened:

The dev team was developing a hardcore always-on PvP MMO, which is fine but not for everyone
Playtest rolls around and the devs get back player numbers you would expect for a hardcore PvP MMO
Speculation: the higher ups really don't like the projected return on their investment given the abysmal (for their ideas) player numbers and force the Studio to pivot to PvE content
At this point the entire game has been designed around PvP and the devs now have only ~1 year to somehow shove PvE content in there
Launch comes and since the devs had to spend all available time on forcing in PvE content what is present is buggy and doesn't fit the game mechanics
Ensue several months of panicked back and forth patching of the game by the devs, making the entire mess worse because everyone is pissed by one change or another

[-] Zikeji@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago

To be fair, a lot of the game breaking launch bugs that hurt the game for me were with PVP (specifically, the instanced wars). I do know there were others but those PVP bugs are what I'll always remember. The lag, the broken healing, the hatchet exploit, and a few others.