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Amazon Game Studios lays off employees during E3

The tech giant says it needs to "align resources to match evolving, long-range priorities."

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor
Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.
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The layoffs coincide with the world's biggest gaming conference.

 Amazon

Amazon Game Studios laid off employees this week, the tech company confirmed on Friday. The layoffs come during the week of E3, the world's biggest gaming conference. Amazon Game Studios, launched in 2012, makes games including New World, The Grand Tour Game and Crucible. It has studios in San Diego and Orange County, California, and at Amazon's HQ in Seattle. 

"Amazon Game Studios is reorganizing some of our teams to allow us to prioritize development of New World, Crucible and new unannounced projects we're excited to reveal in the future," an Amazon spokesperson told CNET in an emailed statement.

Amazon didn't say how many people were affected by the job cuts.

The spokesperson added that the company is working to "align resources to match evolving, long-range priorities."

"Amazon is deeply committed to games and continues to invest heavily in Amazon Game Studios, Twitch, Twitch Prime, AWS, our retail businesses and other areas within Amazon," the spokesperson said.

More from E3

One person who was laid off said Amazon Game Studios told employees they had 60 days to find a new position within Amazon, otherwise they'd receive a severance package, Kotaku reported Friday.

According to Kotaku, Amazon has also canceled several unannounced games.

The news follows Amazon Game Studios confirming the cancellation of its competitive video game Breakaway last year "after a lot of soul searching."