Amazon Games Slammed By Layoffs — ‘New World’ Ends New Content And ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ MMO Reportedly Cancelled
As Amazon has been struck by layoffs, Amazon Games has also felt the squeeze. With a reduced focus on major titles and MMO, New World will cease new content, while their The Lord of the Rings MMO has reportedly been cancelled.
RELATED: Netflix Reportedly Producing ‘Crash Bandicoot’ Animated Series
Beth Galetti (Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology) posted a message that had been “shared with Amazon employees earlier today.” While the Amazon News post was entitled “Staying nimble and continuing to strengthen our organizations,” the euphemism was blatant.
Amazon laid off approximately 14,000 roles occurred despite — in part — reducing the number of managers last year. In summation, Galetti explains these “reductions” continue the goal of “further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources.”
Those affected would be prioritized for new internal roles, or supported by severance pay and more. Amazon still seeks to “remove layers” and “realize efficiency gains” in 2026. Galetti justified these layoffs as to allow Amazon to “move as quickly as possible” amid the innovation of AI; “the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet.”
Karen Wise of the New York Times reported that according to “interviews and a cache of internal strategy documents” Amazon has the ultimate goal of automating 75% of their workforce — albeit seemingly via robotics. In fact, the documentation avoids such terms, using “advanced technology” or “cobot.”
Amid this news, Jason Schreier of Bloomberg — “with assistance from Cecilia D’Anastasio” — offered further insight into how this affects Amazon Games. They report a memo the same day as the announcement declared “significant role reductions” would hit the central publishing division, Irvine, San Diego offices.
Continuing their heavy focus on their cloud gaming service Luna, the memo stated Amazon could create “casual and AI-focused games” for it. For comparison, reason Amazon Games releases have included Courtroom Chaos for Luna (an AI game featuring Snoop Dogg), and party game King of Meat.
Amazon Games Montreal will reportedly continue to work on March of Giants, along with Amazon’s Tomb Raider (developed by Crystal Dynamics) and a racing game (by Maverick Games).
Amazon will also be reducing budgets for big-budget titles — especially MMO games. This became painfully apparent with an announcement on the official New World website (an MMO developed and published by Amazon Games).
“After four years of steady content updates and a major new console release, we’ve reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates,” the post revealed. As such, Season 10 and the Nighthaven expansion (launched October 13th) will be the final new content for the game, with the latter and Rise of the Angry Earth expansion being made free.
While more details will be revealed “in the coming months,” the post insisted “Rest assured, our intention is to keep servers operating through 2026.”
RELATED: Sony CEO Says ‘No’ To Buying Warner Bros. Discovery, Would Rather Focus On “Global Market For Anime”
In a similar vein, Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Rock Paper Shotgun reports a now deleted LinkedIn post claimed that Amazon Games’ The Lord of the Rings MMO is cancelled.
Now former Senior Gameplay Engineer Ashleigh Amrine reportedly posted, “This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games, alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y’all would have loved it).”
Not to be confused with Daybreak Game Company’s The Lord of the Rings Online, or Amazon’s MMO announced in 2019 and cancelled in 2021; Amazon Games’ second attempt at a The Lord of the Rings MMO was announced in 2023, and at this time still officially in development.
Not only was Amrine’s LinkedIn post removed, but it appears her account is hidden or deleted, as other users called “Ashleigh Amrine” don’t mention Amazon Games in their portfolio.
RELATED: Emiru Denounces Security Negligence Following TwitchCon 2025 Attack
As noted by Schreier and D’Anastasio, Amazon have tried to make their mark on the gaming industry for over a decade — even trying to take on the mighty Steam and failing miserably. Amazon Games’ biggest successes appear to stem from publishing other’s work, such as Korean MMO Lost Ark — despite its censorship, and gamers calling its monetization pay to win.
Amazon Games’ hero shooter Crucible shut down in 2020, mere months after launch and despite multiple attempts to revitalize it — and what was their first major original game outside of licenced and mobile titles.
Bandai Namco MMO Blue Protocol ended its service in January of this year, before it could launch in the west under Amazon Games. Blue Protocol: Star Resonance launched on October 9th, as a free-to-play MMO on mobile and PC; and published by A Plus.
The aforementioned New World was middling to critics and even gamers who found it fun felt it quickly grew dull. More recent games such as Throne and Liberty and King of Meat have also met with middling critic reviews.
More About: Video Games