Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, also founder of the company and one of the richest men in the world, recently announced he will step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer. Andy Jassy, currently CEO of Amazon Web Services, will take his place in the third quarter of 2021.
A fresh Bloomberg report mentions that the new Amazon CEO immediately sent an internal email to staff members earlier this week to recommit the company to the development of videogames. Jassy said that he believes success will come, provided the necessary focus on 'what matters most' is applied.
Some businesses take off in the first year, and others take many years. Though we haven’t consistently succeeded yet in Amazon Game Studios, I believe we will if we hang in there.
Being successful right away is obviously less stressful, but when it takes longer, it’s often sweeter. I believe this team will get there if we stay focused on what matters most.
Amazon's effort in the videogames industry began in earnest several years ago, with the announcement of the Lumberyard (a CRYENGINE fork licensed by Amazon) engine and the subsequent reveal of the first three Amazon Game Studios titles Breakaway, Crucible, and New World.
To this date, though, none of these attempts have been successful. Breakaway and Crucible were canceled, while New World has been delayed and partially redesigned, though we'll have to wait a few more months to fully assess it once it ships this Spring. As for the Lumberyard engine, only a handful of non-Amazon projects have opted to use it to date, including Star Citizen, the seemingly defunct The DRG Initiative, and the upcoming Deadhaus Sonata.
Still, such a strong committal from the new Amazon CEO bodes well for the company's future efforts in this growing industry, especially as it resonates with Microsoft CEO Natya Sadella's strong push into gaming and as it contrasts with Google's recent decision to wind down investment in Stadia first-party games development.
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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