Copyright escapistmagazine
Amazon has laid off a ton of workers today, including many of its game-related teams at Amazon Game Studios. A report by an industry insider at Bloomberg revealed that over 30,000 employees are getting laid off from Amazon, with a lot of those employees working at the Amazon Game Studios in Irvine and San Diego. Vice President Steve Boom allegedly told employees that Amazon was reducing the work it was doing on "big-budget titles, particularly surrounding MMOs." Amazon's studio in Irvine was working on a Lord of the Rings MMO for the past few years while also releasing DLC for its new MMO, New World: Aeternum. Devs working on New World: Aeternum laid off from Amazon While Amazon has yet to confirm who is impacted by the layoffs, employees have started sharing their own experiences on X (formerly Twitter). One Amazon Games employee, Joshua Stubbles, announced that he'd been laid off while working on New World: Aeternum's new expansion, Nighthaven as the Senior Environment Artist. This aligns with further reports that the Amazon Game Studios in California are essentially wiped out completely. https://twitter.com/jstubbles/status/1983124108864041381 Within the Nighthaven expansion itself, gamers have uncovered a letter that appears to be a heartfelt goodbye from developers of the MMO. It reads: "Through it all, we watched. We delighted. We reveled in your enjoyment of every perfect moment, every carefully crafted story, and we even bore witness to the joining of two souls who met here in Aeternum." Amazon did tell MMORPG that the company will continue to support Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark. It did not mention the Lord of the Rings MMO or New World.
