Bloomberg is investigating Amazon’s internal struggle to get the internal battle for its gaming division off the ground
Amazon’s video game division is struggling to get off the ground, and a report from Bloomberg indicates how much has been spent to make this happen.
Two sources familiar with Amazon’s budget told Bloomberg that the tech giant spends “nearly $ 500 million a year” on running the video game division.
This number does not include Twitch, the streaming service that Amazon bought in 2014, nor its cloud streaming service Amazon Luna.
Amazon has brought in a number of video game veterans since establishing the development division, including portal designer Kim Swift and Far Cry 2 director Clint Hocking, neither of whom are still with the company.
The Bloomberg report details problems within Amazon, including a lack of incentives, problems with the Lumberyard engine and an internal “bro culture” where women were not given the same opportunities as their male counterparts, according to interviews with more than 30 current and former Amazon employees.
Amazon’s struggle to launch a game includes the cancellation of a number of projects, including the fantasy sports game Breakaway and, most recently, the hero shooter Crucible.
The MMORPG New World was delayed in 2020 and will currently go live this spring.