It’s not news that Amazon has struggled to make its big break in the video game industry, but a recent Bloomberg book looks more closely at the effort from years ago and provides information from past and current Amazon Studios developers on the steps mistakes they have caused. their continued struggles.
Throughout history, one factor seems to constantly lead to struggle in almost every element of game development expansion: a mismatch between Amazon’s firm management style and what works best for game developers. .
History traces how Amazon’s leadership often takes the carpet off its development teams in situations ranging from poorly prioritized project goals based on other competitors ’trend games, sexist and racist tendencies in the workplace. and the unknown of the game development process few.
Many of the striking tales of Bloomberg’s conversation with more than 30 Amazon Studios developers mention management issues with Amazon executive and studio vice president Mike Frazzini, ranging from times when the unknown experience of Frazzini with video game production made projects difficult and unwilling to listen to the comments of the hired developers as Amazon’s expert talent.
In an example of these Amazon Studio developers, the leadership backtracked on criticism of their game. New World, or Roanoke since it was codenamed in development, it could be considered racist because of its use of colonialism and the enemies who borrowed images from Native Americans. Amazon had to bring in a tribal consultant to recognize the cries of racism.
Bloomberg points out that issues related to sexism in the workplace are one of the few ways Amazon Studios is similar to other major players in the gaming industry.
The women in the study reported times when they were completely ignored during meetings in favor of the company’s men’s comments or times when they faced professional retaliation for talking about issues.
The full story on Bloomberg collects more stories for Amazon Studios developers and touches on the release (and release) of Amazon Crucible as well as the numerous issues that arose from the leadership decree that developers create and use exclusively Lumberyard, Amazon’s own gaming engine, for the creation of its games.