AdminAccording to a report from Bloomberg, Amazon Games studio head Mike Frazzini is stepping down from his role to focus on family. Frazzini has helped lead Amazon’s game division since 2009 and played a role in building the company’s game studio.
“Mike was there at the beginning of Amazon Games, and his leadership and perseverance helped build the games business from the ground up,” Amazon spokesperson Ryan Jones said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Our recent successes with New World and Lost Ark result from the long-term, customer-focused vision for games he helped establish. We are grateful for all his contributions and wish Mike the best.”
Last year, Bloomberg released a report detailing several issues within Amazon Games, including allegations that Frazzini, who began his career at Amazon running the books section of the marketplace, lacked game experience and often rejected the advice of the developers he hired. The report also claims Frazzini would understaff projects and have developers “chase” the latest trends — projects that would ultimately become failures, like the Fortnite-inspired Intensity and League of Legends-like Nova that never made it out of development.
Amazon Games has seen success with New World, an MMORPG released last fall, but even this game wasn’t spared from a rough release; its launch date was pushed back multiple times before it finally went live in September 2021. Its free-to-play lost Ark, initially available only in South Korea, has also been well-received. Lost Ark became the second most played game on Steam following its English localization, a sudden spike in players causing server issues and long queues.
Admin
