The gaming industry is quite unforgiving, which is especially evident in the new round of layoffs from no less than Amazon's Games Division. The two entities involved in the recent round of lay-offs include the Crown Channel and Game Growth, with 180 workers being fired from their jobs.
Christoph Hartman, Vice President of Amazon Games, has put out a memo that addressed these layoffs. According to Hartman, this move was made to refocus the company's resources on areas that provide the highest potential for growth.
With the recent restructuring in April, the company has found that most people would love to get their hands on free games every month, which is why most of Amazon's efforts will be put into Prime Gaming from now on. Because of this, the leadership team has made the tough decision to close Crown Channel and Game Growth for good.
What Are They?
The Crown Channel is a channel on Twitch Prime that focuses on delivering entertainment and gaming content to the masses. Its main draw is to let viewers interact with the channel via on-screen mini-games, chats, and polls. Viewers can affect the outcome of a particular show just by choosing from the options that are presented to them live.
While the concept is good, the Crown Channel hasn't found much success since its inception in 2020. At the time of writing, the said channel only has about 199,000 followers on Twitch, which is a paltry number given how massive Amazon is.
The Crown Channel's first regular series was called Chasing the Crown: Dreamers to Streamers. This show focused on budding streamers being coached by more popular streamers, such as ActionJaxon, AnneMunition, and GoldGlove.
The new up-and-coming streamers will have to take on multiple challenges that involve gaming and some physical ones. Thanks to Twitch, viewers can interact and influence how the show goes on with the interactive options available to them.
Game Growth, on the other hand, is a division that handles game promotion. Some of the jobs within this division include Quality Assurance Engineer, Paid Media Manager, Release manager, and Senior Technical Program Manager, among many others.
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Moving Forward
Despite the recent layoffs, Hartman is confident that the company will do fine in the future. Right now, Amazon Games is launching two titles soon, namely Throne and Liberty and Blue Protocol.
Throne and Liberty is a role-playing game that was originally developed in Korea, but is going to be launched in North America on December 7.
Blue Protocol is an online action RPG with cutesy anime characters and an epic storyline to boot. This game is set to release in January 2024.
In addition, the company is collaborating with other game development companies to deliver popular titles, including an unnamed Tomb Raider game with developer Crystal Dynamics, and an MMO based on the Lord of the Rings, made in partnership with Middle-Earth Enterprises.
What do you think about the recent layoffs? Is focusing on Prime Gaming and future titles the right move for Amazon? Let us know in the comments below.
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