Amazon's divestment from gaming investments continues today with the news that the company has canceled its publishing deal with Maverick Games. This decision follows the shutdown of Amazon's MMO divisions that were working on New World and a new The Lord of the Rings game, as well as this week's shutdown of King of Meat (and the recent departure of division chief Christoph Hartmann). Essentially, Amazon's current gaming investments are just the upcoming Tomb Raider games from Crystal Dynamics and the cloud-based platform Luna.
A spokesperson told The Game Business:
As part of our strategic evolution to focus on projects that leverage Amazon’s unique strengths and scale, including the recent re-launch of Luna and our Tomb Raider franchise partnership with Crystal Dynamics, we have decided to release Maverick Games from their publishing agreement with Amazon Game Studios.
We have tremendous respect for the Maverick Games team and the compelling narrative-led driving experience they’re creating. This decision allows Maverick Games the flexibility to find a publishing partner whose strategic priorities are better aligned with bringing their game to market. We’re proud of what we accomplished together during our partnership and wish them every success in the future.
Maverick Games was founded in early 2023 by former Forza Horizon developers. The studio is still working on an open world driving game targeting a release on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S and X. Today, they released a statement to thank Amazon for the opportunity and to reassure fans that they're committed to the project and are currently in talks with other partners to replace Amazon in the publishing role.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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