Amazon cuts jobs in games unit, part of broader restructuring By Reuters

© Reuters. The brand of Amazon is seen on the firm logistics heart in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

By Greg Bensinger

(Reuters) -Amazon.com has reduce round 180 jobs in its video games division, a minimum of the second spherical of cuts in beneath per week, as a part of a broader restructuring, based on an e mail seen on Monday by Reuters.

“After our preliminary restructuring in April, it grew to become clear that we wanted to focus our assets much more on the areas which can be rising with the very best potential to drive our enterprise ahead,” based on the e-mail dated Nov. 13 from Christoph Hartmann, vp of Amazon (NASDAQ:) Video games.

The corporate started informing staff Monday morning that their roles had been eradicated. It represents the second reduce to the division this yr.

Amazon final week additionally started reducing jobs in its streaming music and podcast division, based on individuals aware of the matter. It additionally reduce a really small variety of jobs in its human assets unit referred to as Individuals Expertise and Know-how, or PXT, based on the sources.

The video games division gives free streaming variations of many video video games like Doom and Roblox, in addition to some Twitch channels. The corporate is specializing in free video games referred to as Prime Gaming, supplied as a perk inside the $139 annual Prime membership that additionally consists of free delivery and free streaming video, Hartmann mentioned.

“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,” he mentioned.

In April, Amazon reduce about 100 jobs within the video games unit.