The Grand Tour Game was the first release from the Amazon Game Studios console, and within a year it was removed from the store windows. Crucible was the next game released in the studio, and it not only returned to its official beta after closed beta, but was shut down in November 2020.
Two other projects, known as Intensity and Nova, never saw the light of day after the teams tried to create games inspired by Fortnite and League of Legends, respectively.All of these canceled and unsuccessful projects at Amazon Game Studios have done so despite Amazon’s spending of the gaming division nearly $ 500 million a year. It is also important to note that the amount does not include Twitch or Amazon Luna, the latter of which is managed, among others.
Frazzini is an ‘Amazon lifer’ who began his career in the Amazon.com book division, where he ‘loved Jeff Bezos as a manager.’ He begins his role as head of the games division by bringing in some of the best game development talent in the world, including Portal’s Kim Swift, Clint Hawking of Far Cry 2, Richard Hilleman of Madden and John Smedley of Everquest. Today, only Smedley remains.
According to many current and former employees of Frazzini’s game studios, he ignored much of the advice given by these experienced developers, and despite regularly telling staff that every Amazon game is a ‘franchise of a’ billion dollars’, he will then understaff projects. .
Furthermore, instead of using leading game engines like Unreal Engine of Unity, the studio chose to license technology from Crytek to create a homemade engine known as Lumberyard.While Lumberyard was meant to link to Amazon Web Services and could be a cheaper alternative than paying for the other engines, it eventually became known as a ‘boogeyman in the office’. Many cited that it was ‘painfully slow’ and that developers would play Halo or watch Amazon Prime Video while waiting at Lumberyard to process art or compose code. One former employee even went so far as to say, “Lumberyard is killing this company.”
Another major problem with the work at Amazon Game Studios is said to be linked to the ‘bro culture’ that was cultivated there, in which women were often not given the same opportunities as men. In addition, “four female game developers said that Amazon had their worst experiences of sexism in the industry.”
There have been stories that they have been ignored and undermined by male managers, and in some cases expelled from the company. One source said that a man in the senior leadership team would not only hinder her career growth after she disagreed with him, but that he would then create new management positions above her and appoint men to take the positions.
Amazon’s game problems also span how they motivate their employees. While most studios pay bonuses based on the critical and commercial response of a game, Amazon’s share plan only rewards employees for how long they’ve been with the company. As a result, some employees have chosen to “put job retention above all else,” say three former employees.
Amazon Game Studio’s next project is the MMO New World. Originally planned for a release in 2020, it was pushed back to the spring of 2021 to improve the quality of the game. The Bloomberg report explains that the project was originally intended to be a survival game where players would take on the role of colonists in a fictional version of America from the 1600s.
The problem, however, was that the players of the enemies would originally come face to face “much like indigenous people.” When developer Patrick Gilmore’s deputy Frazzini pointed out that the environment and villains could be considered racist, he ‘expressed disbelief’.
Eventually, Amazon hired a tribal consultant who found the depiction offensive, and the Native American images have since been removed.
Our latest preview of the New World’s High Level PvE Zone shows a game that may not be for everyone, but a promise and a huge improvement in the PvE content and general polish of the previous version.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.