Bloomberg report reveals major dysfunction at Amazon Game Studios

You may know it as Everything Store. But there is one piece of “everything” that Amazon has failed to crack: video games. A new report of BloombergJason Schreier and Priya Anand explain why Amazon Game Studios, backed by one of the biggest companies on the planet, can’t make a successful video game.

The details, based on interviews with more than 30 current and former Amazon employees, paint an apparent picture we’re only too familiar with. A disconnected company is putting money into an ambitious project. The executives refuse to listen to the basic staff. Senior executives institute draconian policies that hinder workflow rather than help it. You would think these companies would get the memo now.

Today The alleged Amazon story, in particular, is like a major case of Bad Video Game Development Yahtzee:

• Initial game designs New world– in which you play a settler in a fictional 17th century America – featured enemy designs that uncomfortably resembled Native Americans. Through Bloomberg, Amazon “hired a tribal consultant who found the portrait to be indeed offensive.” New world, which was originally slated for release in August 2020, is now slated for release in spring 2021.
• The developers at Amazon Game Studios were forced to use a proprietary development tool called Lumberyard. (You may have read about it in a piece of equally excellent reports through WiredCecilia D’Anastasio from last October.) In 2018, Amazon brought in Take-Two veteran Christoph Hartmann as vice president of game studios. He relaxed the “mandate” that required everyone to use Lumberyard.
• “Bro Culture” is said to be ubiquitous in Amazon game development studios. A woman said Bloomberg that, following a disagreement with a male member of senior management, he created new positions above her and hired men in those roles.
• Amazon has brought in reputable developers who have worked on popular series such as Portal and Far cry. Among them, only one remains.
• The leader of the entire gaming division, Mike Frazzini, had never made a video game before. It reportedly frustrated developers with basic takes and struggled to differentiate between gameplay and concept imagery.
• Rather than devising new concepts, Amazon pushed to create versions of other popular games. A project called Nova, inspired by League of Legends, was canceled in 2017. One called Intensity, triggered by Fortnitethe astounding success of, was cashed in 2019. And then there is the unfortunate, Overwatch-as Crucible, who planted his face so hard it was published and then not published Last year.
• Amazon Luna, the company’s foray into on-demand gaming, doesn’t even fall under the gaming division. It’s managed by David Limp, who heads Amazon’s devices division (responsible for physical products like the Kindle and Echo).

If you fancy another story of stubborn misdirection and misguided decision-making in the video game industry, BloombergA look behind the scenes at Amazon Game Studios worth reading in its entirety.