Amazon’s Games Division Lays Off 180 Workers Amid Restructuring

Amazon laid off around 180 workers in its games division this week. This is the second time the unit has seen layoffs this year.

The company is also shuttering its Game Growth program, which helps game makers market their products, and Crown Channel, an ad-supported Twitch channel for game-related programming. The moves are part of a larger restructuring to cut back on promoting and supporting third-party games and increase resources dedicated to its own titles, such as Throne and Liberty and Blue Protocol.

According to Reuters, which acquired an in-office email announcing the layoffs, Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann told employees, “After our initial restructuring in April, it became clear that we needed to focus our resources even more on the areas that are growing with the highest potential to drive our business forward.”

Amazon’s gaming unit runs a subscriber-based service that allows users to download video games on a rotating monthly basis. According to Hartmann, the company will continue to provide that service. “We’ve listened to our customers, and we know delivering free games every month is what they want most, so we are refining our Prime benefit to increase our focus there,” he explained.

This is the second round of cuts to Amazon’s gaming unit this year. In April, around 100 jobs in the gaming division were eliminated. That mirrors larger cuts seen across Amazon’s businesses. More than 27,000 jobs have been eliminated over the past year.