Amazon Game Studios (formerly known as Amazon Games) is a company that creates and publishes video games. It is a part of Amazon, a large online retail company. The main work of Amazon Game Studios is to publish video games that are developed by teams within the company.

History

In 2011, Amazon launched the Amazon Appstore and began hiring developers to create social mobile games. In 2012, Amazon Game Studios released Living Classics, a social game for Facebook. The company also published third-party games for the Fire Phone, such as Lost Within, Til Morning's Light, and To-Fu Fury.

Amazon first announced plans to develop computer games in 2014. It hired Kim Swift (known for Portal), Clint Hocking (known for Far Cry 2), and developers who worked on System Shock 2. Amazon aimed to create games that fell between the standards of small teams making casual games and large teams making high-quality games. Amazon Game Studios wanted teams of 5 to 30 people to work on games for 1 to 18 months, focusing on "creativity" and "craftsmanship" across all genres. Studio vice-president Mike Frazzini aimed to develop games similar to Minecraft, The Walking Dead, and The Room. The studio also encouraged developers to influence hardware and cloud services, such as allowing developers to use Amazon's cloud for processing and improving the Fire TV's memory based on feedback. Many developers left within a year of the studio's founding. Amazon Game Studios later published mobile games, including the horror game Lost Within.

Two years after its initial announcement, in September 2016 at TwitchCon, the studio revealed its first three PC games: Breakaway, Crucible, and New World. Breakaway was a team-based brawler where two teams of four players competed to deliver a ball to the opponent's goal. It was designed to integrate with Twitch, a streaming service Amazon acquired in 2014. Amazon Game Studios canceled Breakaway in March 2018. Crucible was a 12-player, class-based game where players competed to be the last one standing. It launched in May 2020 but was canceled later that year due to "inability to see a sustained future." New World is a large-scale multiplayer game with a supernatural colonial United States theme. Players can build settlements, fight each other, or battle monsters. Crucible launched on May 20, 2020, while New World was released on September 28, 2021, after two delays. In August 2018, Christoph Hartmann, co-founder of 2K Games, became vice president of Amazon Game Studios under Mike Frazzini.

In June 2019, during E3 week, Amazon announced layoffs, though the number of affected employees was not revealed. Several unannounced projects were canceled. Amazon had partnered with Leyou to develop a The Lord of the Rings MMO since mid-2019. However, after Tencent acquired Leyou in December 2020, disputes between Amazon and Tencent led to the cancellation of the game.

Amazon has three game development studios in San Diego, Seattle, and Orange County. In March 2021, it opened a new studio in Montreal, led by former members of Ubisoft Montreal who worked on Rainbow Six: Siege. In October 2021, a leak of Twitch's source code revealed Amazon Games was developing a competitor to Steam, codenamed "Vapor." New World launched on September 28, 2021, and reached 707,000 concurrent players at its peak.

Lost Ark is a large-scale online action role-playing game (MMOARPG) developed by Tripod Studio and Smilegate RPG. It launched in South Korea on December 4, 2018, and was released in North America, South America, and Europe on February 11, 2022, by Amazon Games. Within 24 hours of its release, it became the second most played game on Steam.

On September 22, 2021, Amazon Games announced it would publish a new title from Glowmade, a studio based in Guildford, England, with veterans from Lionhead Studios. This game will focus on online cooperative play. In March 2022, Mike Frazzini stepped down as studio head. In April 2023, Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann informed staff about layoffs affecting about 100 employees in its video games division. In November 2023, Amazon eliminated over 180 employees, closing the Crown Twitch channel and the Game Growth team to focus on free games for Prime Gaming. In May 2024, Amazon Games opened its first European studio in Bucharest.

In October 2025, Amazon cut about 14,000 jobs company-wide, including significant reductions in Amazon Games. This required the division to pause development on larger titles, such as ending New World and shutting down its servers in 2026, while focusing on Luna and the publishing division. In December 2025, Amazon sold its Montreal studio and the game March of Giants to Ubisoft. In January 2026, Christoph Hartmann was laid off as part of company-wide cuts.

Divisions

Game development divisions include:

• Relentless Studios (previously known as Amazon Game Studios Seattle) is an American video game studio located in Seattle, Washington. It launched the game Crucible in May 2020. The studio was led by Louis Castle, who co-founded the development company Westwood Studios. Crucible continued operating until the studio closed in November 2020.
• Amazon Games Orange County (previously known as Double Helix Games) is an American video game studio based in Irvine, California. It launched the game New World in September 2021.
• Other studios are located in San Diego, California, and Bucharest, Romania.

Amazon Games application

The company provides a Microsoft Windows software called Amazon Games, which has been available since 2019. This software helps users install games they receive through Prime Gaming.