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Amazon's incumbent CEO Andy Jassy has pledged his support to the company's gaming division following reported internal struggles at Amazon Game Studios.
In an email seen by Bloomberg, Jassy acknowledged the difficulties faced so far, which have seen games like Crucible being shut down only months after its official launch. "Some businesses take off in the first year, and others take many years,” Jassy said in an email to staff. “Though we haven’t consistently succeeded yet in AGS, I believe we will if we hang in there.” Jassy is set to replace Amazon's CEO and founder Jeff Bezos later this year after Bezos announced that he was stepping down on Tuesday.
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Jassy's supportive email was apparently a follow-up to an email from Mike Frazzini, the current head of Amazon Game Studios. Frazzini was addressing a recent Bloomberg report which illuminated behind-the-scenes issues at the studio. Bloomberg's report alleged a 'Bro Culture' at AGS and alluded to multiple cancelled projects, mismanagement and a difficult-to-work-with game engine in Amazon Lumberyard, which apparently caused difficulties during development.
In the emails obtained by Bloomberg, Frazzini is reported as saying that the studio "has zero tolerance for [the kind of behaviour described], or anything less than a fully equitable and inclusive environment [...] We’ve learned and improved a lot along the way, myself included, and we will continue to do so," Frazzini continued. "Making great games is hard, and we’re not going to get everything right.”
Amazon has not had a lot of success in the gaming space so far, but Jassy and Frazzini's comments suggest they don't seem to be giving up just yet. The company announced its foray into cloud streaming in 2020 with Amazon Luna. Here's everything we know about Amazon Luna as the service sits in beta.
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.