Jay Peters reviews through The Verge: Amazon is reducing “simply over” 180 jobs in its video games division and making some adjustments to its video games initiatives, in keeping with a memo despatched to staff by VP of Amazon Video games Christoph Hartmann. The adjustments embrace shutting down its Crown channel that streams on Twitch, closing its Recreation Progress effort that helps sport makers market their merchandise, and “refocusing” the work it does with its free video games supplied via Prime Gaming. “We’re pleased with the work the groups have been doing, pushing into new areas with weekly content material on Crown Channel, and discovering extra methods to assist publishers attain new audiences with Recreation Progress,” Hartmann wrote. “However after additional analysis of our companies, it turned clear that we want focus our sources and efforts to ship nice video games to gamers now and sooner or later.” Reuters reported on the memo earlier on Monday, and you’ll learn the total electronic mail, which Amazon shared with The Verge, on the finish of this story.
As for Prime Gaming’s free video games, which you’ll entry if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, “we have listened to our prospects and we all know delivering free video games each month is what they need most, so we’re refining our Prime profit to extend our focus there,” Hartmann wrote. Amazon spokesperson Brittney Hefner declined to share extra specifics about what’s altering.