Amazon announces large-scale layoffs, laying off 14,000 employees, halting development of large-scale MMORPG in gaming division
Following reports that Amazon is planning to lay off 30,000 employees, the largest number in the company's history, a human resources executive has announced that the company plans to lay off approximately 14,000 employees, including those in its game development division.
An update from SVP Beth Galetti on Amazon workforce reduction
Amazon Makes 'Significant' Cuts in Video-Game Division - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-28/amazon-makes-significant-cuts-in-video-game-division
Amazon is ditching MMOs and cranking out party games | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/808332/amazon-gaming-layoffs-mmo-aaa-first-party-games?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Amazon Lays Off More Than 14,000, Including 'Significant Role Reductions' Across Its Gaming Division - Game Informer
https://gameinformer.com/2025/10/28/amazon-lays-off-more-than-14000-including-significant-role-reductions-across-its-gaming
Amazon aims to improve operational efficiency through AI, and in June 2025 , employees were notified that this would lead to job cuts. At the end of October 2025, Reuters reported that Amazon plans to cut 30,000 jobs, citing testimony from a source.
Amazon plans to lay off 30,000 employees across all businesses, the largest in the company's history - GIGAZINE
Following the news, Beth Galetti, Amazon's senior vice president of people and technology, shared a message to employees about the job cuts, revealing that the company plans to lay off approximately 14,000 employees in order to strengthen its organization while remaining agile.
'Some may wonder why we are reducing our workforce when our business is performing so well. We deliver amazing customer experiences every day across our business, innovate rapidly, and deliver strong financial results. We must remember that the world is changing rapidly. Modern AI is the most transformative technology since the advent of the internet, enabling companies to innovate faster than ever before. We believe that in order to act as quickly as possible for our customers and our business, we need to become a leaner, less hierarchical, and more owned organization,' Galetti said, suggesting that the job cuts were due to the impact of AI.
However, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told technology media The Verge, 'AI is not the reason for the majority of our job cuts.' 'In 2024, we began strengthening our culture and teams by simplifying hierarchical structures, increasing ownership, and reducing bureaucracy to increase speed and ownership and position ourselves to innovate, collaborate, partner, and best serve our customers. These efforts are starting to pay off, and we're seeing great results for our teams and our customers. The cuts we're announcing today are a continuation of those efforts.'
In addition, as part of this massive layoff of 14,000 employees, Amazon has revealed that it plans to implement large-scale job cuts across its game development division, Amazon Game Studios .
Amazon Game Studios has developed and published MMORPGs such as ' New World: Aeternum ' and ' Lost Ark ,' but many of its first-party AAA title projects are expected to be canceled in the future.
Steve Boom, Amazon's vice president of audio, Twitch, and games, told The Verge in a statement, 'While we're proud of our success in developing and publishing first-party AAA games, we've made the difficult decision to cease the majority of our first-party AAA game development work within Amazon Game Studios, particularly around MMOs. This includes significant reductions in staffing across our Irvine and San Diego studios, as well as our central publishing team.'
The developers of New World: Aeternum have already announced that they will no longer provide new content updates. The development team stated that they have no plans to end the game at this time, and that the servers will remain operational until 2026. They also stated that if they do end service, they will provide at least six months' notice.
Lost Ark, published by Amazon Game Studios, says it plans to provide regular content updates.
Boom explained to The Verge that Amazon isn't completely exiting the gaming business.
Related Posts:
in Game, Posted by logu_ii