Amazon founder and long-time CEO, Jeff Bezos, is set to step down from his position this summer. Andy Jassy, a highly-respected leader in the company, responsible for Amazon’s successful cloud computing presence, is currently the conglomerate’s incumbent CEO and has already announced a commitment to the production of more games.
Last year, Amazon pulled the plug on Crucible, a hero shooter that just couldn’t secure a dedicated player base or widespread publicity despite its three multiplayer modes and sizable roster. In that same breath, however, Amazon revealed Luna — a new cloud gaming service that looks to rival Stadia. But serious issues within the company’s Game Making Division were illuminated in January when Bloomberg covered the toxic, misogynistic culture that took place at Amazon Game Studios.
“Four female game developers say their worst experiences of sexism in the industry were at Amazon,” states the report. “They shared stories of being ignored and undermined by male executives and say they were eventually driven out of the company.” In addition to these issues, many development teams were understaffed and neglected.
According to an email sent to Bloomberg by Amazon Game Studios head, Mike Frazzini, the company has no tolerance for dangerous or demeaning work cultures and will work to combat such claims, “We’ve learned and improved a lot along the way, myself included, and we will continue to do so.” Similarly, incumbent CEO Andy Jassy voiced that despite the studios’ less-than-ideal journey to this point, there is still success waiting on the horizon.
How do you feel about Amazon’s foray into the ever-growing world of game creation? Do you believe that the newly appointed CEO will make much-needed changes to workplace culture and the game development process? Make sure to sound off in the comments below.
[Source: Bloomberg via IGN]