It’s not news that Amazon has struggled to make its big breakthrough in the video game industry, but a recent piece from Bloomberg takes a closer look at the years-long effort and provides insight from past and current Amazon Studios developers on what mistakes it has made. continued struggle.
Throughout the story, one factor seems to lead to conflict throughout in almost every element of game development expansion: a mismatch between Amazon’s own steadfast management style and what works best for game developers.
The story traces how Amazon’s leadership regularly pulls the rug out of its development teams in situations ranging from wrong project priorities, based on trends from other competitors, sexist and racist tendencies in the workplace, and unfamiliarity with the game development process to little.
Many of the striking stories from Bloomberg’s conversation with more than 30 Amazon Studios developers mention management issues with former Amazon CEO and studio director Mike Frazzini, ranging from moments where Frazzini’s unfamiliarity with video game production hampered and a reluctance to after feedback from the developers appointed as Amazon’s expert talent.
In one such example, Amazon Studio developers pushed back leadership against criticism of the game New world, or Roanoke As it has evolved in development, it can be considered racist because of the use of colonialism and enemies who have borrowed Native American images. Amazon has asked a tribal consultant to acknowledge the cries of racism.
Bloomberg points out that problems with sexism in the workplace are one of the few ways Amazon Studios is similar to other major players in the gaming industry.
Women in the studio reported on times when they were directly ignored during meetings in favor of comments from men at the company, or times when they faced professional retaliation for talking about issues.
The full Bloomberg story contains more stories for Amazon Studios developers and touches on the launch (and unveiling) of Amazon’s Furnace as well as the many issues that arose from the leadership decision that developers create and use Lumberyard, Amazon’s own game engine, solely for the creation of its games.