According to the latest report, Mike Frazzini, a veteran Amazon employee and founder of Amazon Game Studios, was leaving. Amazon spokesman Ryan Jones said the executive told employees on Friday that he was leaving to focus on family.
Moreover, Amazon Game Studios has been an expensive endeavor for the e-commerce giant, costing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, but failing to produce hit games for years.
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Frazzini previously worked in Amazon’s books division, and when he became head of the division, he was a newbie in gaming. Bloomberg reported last year that some employees criticized him for deviating from the traditional playbook of game-making.
After canceling games in various stages of development, and even not releasing them for a while, the company achieved breakthrough success with its online PC game New World this fall.
At a conference shortly after the game’s release, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said gaming could become the company’s largest entertainment category. Following New World’s warm reception, former Amazon boss Jeff Bezos tweeted: “After many failures and setbacks in gaming, we have succeeded. Don’t give up, no matter how hard it is.”
But even the success of New World faded away after its initial release. The game had 913,000 concurrent players at the end of September and now has about 26,500 players, according to Steam Charts.
