Amazon Games will close its Crown channel on Twitch and cut 180 jobs

14.11.2023 - 18:43 / techcrunch.com / Christoph Hartmann / Will

Amazon announced another cluster of layoffs this week along with plans to discontinue the Crown channel, a flashy Amazon-run Twitch channel that featured television-like programming. Amazon will also shutter its Game Growth group, which helped creators in the gaming world market themselves.

In a letter to staff, Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann characterized the decision as a move that would put more emphasis on offering free games to subscribers through Prime Gaming. “We’ve listened to our customers and we know delivering free games every month is what they want most, so we are refining our Prime benefit to increase our focus there,” Hartmann wrote.

The layoffs will affect “just over” 180 roles across those groups. In April, Amazon eliminated around 100 roles in its games division. “After our initial restructuring in April, it became clear that we needed to focus our resources even more on the areas that are growing with the highest potential to drive our business forward,” Hartmann wrote.

In February, Bloomberg reported that Amazon’s Crown channel on Twitch was inflating viewer numbers artificially using “junk views.” The Crown channel attracted advertisers through expensive home page promotion that at times made the channel appear as popular as Twitch’s top tier streamers.

“Although Crown appears to draw in thousands of viewers each livestream, comparatively few people follow the channel or participate in its chats—suggesting they aren’t engaging with the content,” Bloomberg reported at the time.

According to Amazon spokesperson Brittney Hefner, the restructuring will focus Amazon’s gaming efforts on its “primary business” of creating games in-house — like New World, its 2021 massive multiplayer title and a forthcoming Lord of the Rings game — and publishing games from outside developers.

The company provided the full memo to staff, which is embedded below.

“Hello everyone,

I have some important news to share with you all today about the future of our business.

As I’ve shared previously, our goal for Amazon Games is to become one of the leading creators of high-quality gaming content that delights players for years to come. Part of this bold vision involves experimentation as we explore what gamers want most and we regularly review these experiments to ensure we’re creating the most impact.

After our initial restructuring in April, it became clear that we needed to focus our resources even more on the areas that are growing with the highest potential to drive our business forward. As such, the leadership team and I have made the difficult decision to close two of our initiatives – Crown Channel and Game Growth. We are also refocusing our efforts for Prime Gaming. We’ve listened to our customers and we