Why Amazon has failed to make a game

[the-pi-guy]

Era Thread

Bloomberg Article

Mike Frazzini had never made a video game when he helped start Amazon Game Studios. Eight years later, he has released two duds, withdrew both from stores after a torrent of negative reactions and canceled many more. For a company that dominates countless areas of retail, consumer electronics and enterprise computing, the multiple failures in gaming show one realm that may be impervious to Amazon.com Inc.'s distinctive business philosophy. It tried to make games the Amazon way, instead of simply making games people would want to play.

Frazzini is an Amazon lifer who came up in the books section of the website, where he endeared himself to Jeff Bezos as a manager there. Conventional wisdom inside the company is that if you can run one business, you can run any other. Amazon's deep financial resources certainly help. As head of the games division, Frazzini has acquired established development studios and pushed the company to spend nearly $1 billion for the live video streaming website Twitch. Frazzini recruited some of the top names in the video game industry, including creators of the critically acclaimed franchises EverQuest and Portal, as well as executives from Electronic Arts Inc. and other big publishers.

Then, according to numerous current and former employees of Frazzini's game studios, he ignored much of their advice. He frequently told staff that every Amazon game needed to be a "billion-dollar franchise" and then understaffed the projects, they say. Instead of using industry-standard development tools, Frazzini insisted Amazon build its own, which might have saved the company money if the software ever worked properly. Executives under Frazzini initially rejected charges that New World, an Amazon game that would ask players to colonize a mythical land and murder inhabitants who bear a striking resemblance to Native Americans, was racist. They relented after Amazon hired a tribal consultant who found that the portrayal was indeed offensive, say two people who worked on the project. The game, previously planned for release last year, is now scheduled for this spring

Many of the game developers who joined Amazon found themselves repelled by the corporate culture. The company is driven by data, and employees are expected to write six-page documents to get major decisions approved. In game development, on the other hand, a phrase often uttered around the office is "finding the fun." It refers to altering and polishing small aspects of a game to figure out what makes the experience enjoyable. The results are measured only in emotion, which is why many developers say it's critical for the people in charge to have experience making games.

Amazon didn't give employees much financial incentive to release anything, either. Most big game companies pay staff bonuses based in part on the critical and commercial response to their games, but Amazon's stock plan only rewards employees for time spent at the company. That led some to prioritize job preservation over anything else, say three former employees. They say they watched colleagues avoid arguments and only seek to placate bosses like Frazzini, even when they disagreed. (This was in defiance of the Amazon principle "Have backbone; disagree and commit.")

tldr: bureaucracy, bad management has killed off Amazon's projects.

[darkknightkryta]

They need to start putting something in place for stupid managers.  It's not just the game industry either with the top destroying the bottom with stupidity.

[Legend]

I've been following New World. It's not like it's exactly my type of game, but #1 I liked the song in the trailer and #2 it at least looks interesting unlike their other games.


From the outside, it feels like a sink or swim moment. It could be well received and set them on the right track, or cement their legacy as a failed venture.