Amazon Layoffs 180 Employees from Gaming Division

Amazon has announced the termination of approximately 180 positions from its gaming division and the closure of Game Growth and Crown Channel initiatives. This announcement follows a series of layoffs by Amazon. Including those in the podcast and music sector last week, along with similar reductions in the gaming department earlier this year. Despite the company surpassing analyst estimates in the third quarter. The total number of layoffs made by the online shopping giant this year has now reached 27,000.

Staff Reduction in Amazon’s Gaming Sector

Amazon recently laid off 180 employees from its gaming division, Amazon Games, as part of a broader corporate restructuring effort. The affected individuals were informed on Monday morning through an email seen by Reuters. These layoffs come just six months after the initial restructuring of Amazon Games, which resulted in the dismissal of 100 employees.

Despite shutting down the Crown Channel and Game Growth projects, Amazon will continue to expand the Prime Gaming offering, a free gaming service included in Amazon’s annual Prime subscription. This is part of the company’s structural reorganization. Christoph Hartmann, Vice President of Amazon Games, stated,

“After our initial restructuring last April, it became clear that we needed to further focus our resources on areas that are growing with the greatest potential to advance our business.”

Amazon’s Layoffs are not Isolated

These recent Amazon layoffs did not occur in isolation. Over the past 12 months, the online retailer has quietly laid off a total of 27,000 employees across various divisions. Last November, the company laid off 10,000 employees in the devices, retail, and human resources sectors.

More recently, Amazon laid off staff in the Studio and Video divisions last month. The compny also dismissed Amazon Music employees in Latin America, North America, and Europe last week. Additionally, the company also raised the subscription price for Amazon Music this year, increasing it from $9.99 to $10.99.

Despite 2023 being a challenging year for many large tech companies, Amazon’s recent decisions might surprise some. As the company reported a triple increase in its net income and a 26% growth in advertising revenue in its latest quarterly report.

The Tech Layoff Saga Continues

While layoffs in Silicon Valley have slightly slowed down over the year, an increasing number of tech companies have found themselves compelled to lay off personnel in recent months due to the macroeconomic challenges the industry is facing. For example, LinkedIn, Microsoft’s employee networking platform, laid off 669 employees last October. While the NFT market OpenSea announced a 50% reduction in its workforce earlier this month.

Although it is yet to be determined whether this latest wave of layoffs will surpass previous ones, data from Layoffs.fyi reveal that 2023 has seen a 50% increase in tech industry layoffs compared to 2022, making it unlikely that this trend will reverse in the coming year.