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Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

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Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#41

Post by nerdix »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #37
shortrounddev2 wrote: post #30

I think if the last few years have shown us anything, it's that tech companies aren't good at making games. They just don't know how to do it.

I think a good lesson is that when Microsoft got into gaming they had a real long term commitment and took it seriously. They put in the work to understand it. In contrast, Amazon and Google felt they could buy their way in based on a playbook that might have worked with other verticals. That unsurprisingly failed.

And even then they haven't been great at making games over the long term. To the extent that they have now pivoted to buying whole publishers with well established multi-billion dollar portfolios.

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#42

Post by userinanother »

hughesjj wrote: post #35
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making games is hard. Your failure modes are the union of software and entertainment failure modes. Honestly, I find it impressive that any good games are ever made.

Especially at the wage and wlb offered by the industry.

That’s what makes it hard to compete.

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#43

Post by dmvdoug »

ajyey wrote: post #28
jarjar2_ wrote: post #3

I think they've found their sweet spot as a publisher rather than a development house. It's hard to make successful games, and just throwing large sums of money and people at a problem doesn't guarantee success.

See: Rings of Power

People say season two was better than season one but season one was so bad I can’t bring myself to watch season two.

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#45

Post by jakobson14 »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #26

>“We’ve listened to our customers and we know delivering free games every month is what they want most, so we are refining our Prime benefit to increase our focus there. With these changes in our business approach come changes to our resourcing, resulting in the elimination of just over 180 roles" what an awful PR statement. "y'all wanted free games, so you'll get it at the cost of 200 employee's livelihoods!". Weird…

Pretty standard defence in the "consumer welfare" model of antitrust that developed in the 80's

doesn't matter if you use your position to fuck over your suppliers and workers, so long as consumers don't see a price increase. this particular action may not be an example of trust behaviour, but amazon overall is perfectly moulded to the consumer welfare legal environment so I can see this as having that verbiage leaking through

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#46

Post by jakobson14 »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #27
DiggyJohnson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is becoming a bit of a meme on these layoff threads. This paragraph actually seems less bullshit than many of the corporate messages around layoffs. “This was not a decision we take lightly, and we’re proud of the work these teams have accomplished, but we believe that if we are to succeed we need to take the business in a different direction.” How would you improve it?

well for a trillion dollar company, it's kind of hard to suggest "if we are to succeed", but that's not the fault of your PR statement template. It's just plain impossible to pass off "we need to make cuts" when you make that much money.

succeed? sure. but what do you do when you decide you're just not going to pursue an entire line of business after all? pay everyone in that division to just sit on their hands?

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#47

Post by johnnyanmac »

jakobson14 wrote: post #46
johnnyanmac wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well for a trillion dollar company, it's kind of hard to suggest "if we are to succeed", but that's not the fault of your PR statement template. It's just plain impossible to pass off "we need to make cuts" when you make that much money.

succeed? sure. but what do you do when you decide you're just not going to pursue an entire line of business after all? pay everyone in that division to just sit on their hands?

Just say that? "we are taking a different direction to X and X is no longer needed".

I don't understand why it's so hard to be frank. We're not dealing with children here.

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#48

Post by DiggyJohnson »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #38
DiggyJohnson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't respond to my main point about whether its reasonable for an unprofitable organization within a profitable corporation to make this sort of move and use this sort of messaging.

which part of "they can fire or hire however they want. That's just business" doesn't respond to your main point? >use this sort of messaging. They are free to message it however they want. Doesn't mean I'll believe it's the real reason they did it. I somehow doubt they will get better free games for consumers (or any) as a result of this layoff.

What was the real reason they did this? We disagree, I understand that, but I’m not sure what you’re suggesting to be the real cause.

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#49

Post by johnnyanmac »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #48
johnnyanmac wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which part of "they can fire or hire however they want. That's just business" doesn't respond to your main point? >use this sort of messaging. They are free to message it however they want. Doesn't mean I'll believe it's the real reason they did it. I somehow doubt they will get better free games for consumers (or any) as a result of this layoff.

What was the real reason they did this? We disagree, I understand that, but I’m not sure what you’re suggesting to be the real cause.

If I knew the real reason I wouldn't have left that comment. Could be a huge scandal, could be that division wasn't making the money expected.

The most likely and boring reason is that it's just more industry shrinking in response to the economy. Just because Amazon can afford to keep things running doesn't mean they won't penny pinch.

Re: Amazon Lays Off 180 Employees in Its Games Division

#50

Post by spacemadness »

hughesjj wrote: post #35
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making games is hard. Your failure modes are the union of software and entertainment failure modes. Honestly, I find it impressive that any good games are ever made.

Especially at the wage and wlb offered by the industry.

It’s passion industry wages similar to working on special effects in Hollywood. These industries of course take advantage as much as they’re able. A lot of the pay is measured in “cool job” units.
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