Amazon “Gutting” Its Games Division As It Ends Support On New World

By Elijah Gonzalez  |  October 29, 2025 | 10:45am
Video Games News Amazon
Amazon “Gutting” Its Games Division As It Ends Support On New World

Yesterday, Amazon announced that it was cutting 14,000 jobs as it pivots towards the usage of AI. According to reporting from Bloomberg, those job cuts include “gutting” its video game division.

While the exact number of terminated positions hasn’t been disclosed, Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier reports that a company memo stated “significant role reductions” would occur at its offices in Irvine and San Diego, as well as in its publishing division. The company will also largely be pivoting away from producing big-budget titles, like its MMOs.

The memo provided details on what the company will be doing next. Apparently, it will continue to emphasize Luna, its cloud gaming service. Amazon Games Montreal will continue working on its upcoming free-to-play MOBA, March of Giants, which has been conducting playtests. Crystal Dynamics will remain on its next Tomb Raider game, which is being published by Amazon Games. Meanwhile, Maverick Games, which was founded by ex-Forza Horizon devs, will continue on its unannounced racing game.

Beyond this, though, it will largely focus on “casual and AI-focused games” for Luna. Last week, the company released the nightmarish Courtroom Chaos, a party game with an AI-driven rendition of Snoop Dog. It recently released a party game, King of Meat, which doesn’t seem to have proved particularly popular based on its Steam numbers.

As for what Amazon is specifically moving away from, they’re ending support for their MMO New World, a game that got off to a massive start on Steam with over 900,000 concurrents when it launched in 2021, before its player base fell rapidly.

In a blog post, the company announced that its Season 10 and Nighthaven update will serve as the final content release for the game. While it will remain playable throughout 2026, its status beyond then is in doubt, and the company will “provide more details on what to expect in the coming months.” Amazon described supporting the game as “no longer sustainable.”

With the news, the future of the company’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings MMO also seems to be in question.

Amazon Games has largely struggled to break into the game industry since launching back in 2012, with the main exception to that being its two big MMOs, New World and Lost Ark. Now, one of those is shutting down, and the other is a Korean title that Amazon only publishes in Western markets and doesn’t have direct control over.

With the incoming job cuts and the announcement that the company is pivoting towards “casual and AI-focused games,” it seems its interest in gaming is quickly dwindling.

 
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