Amazon's Next CEO Says He's Committed To Making Video Games (bloomberg.com) 50
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: One day before he was named the next chief executive officer ofAmazon.com Inc., Andy Jassy reaffirmed his commitment to making video games while acknowledging the stark challenges the team has faced, according to an email to staff reviewed by Bloomberg. Jassy expressed support for Mike Frazzini, the head of Amazon Game Studios and the subject of a Bloomberg profile last week examining the troubles the company has faced in gaming. The story was based on interviews with more than 30 current or former Amazon employees. Both executives sent emails to their staff this week referencing the article, saying the accounts were exaggerated but recognizing that they had made mistakes.
"Some businesses take off in the first year, and others take many years," wrote Jassy, currently the head of Amazon's cloud computing division and Frazzini's boss. "Though we haven't consistently succeeded yet in AGS, I believe we will if we hang in there." "Being successful right away is obviously less stressful, but when it takes longer, it's often sweeter," Jassy wrote in the email Monday. "I believe this team will get there if we stay focused on what matters most."
The pledge of support from Jassy takes on added importance now that Amazon has said he will succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO this summer. The company's entry into video game creation in 2012 was originally ordered by Bezos, three people who worked with the founder have said. Since then, Amazon has spent billions of dollars, released two big-budget games -- both of which flopped -- and canceled many other projects. Its struggles reflect broader issues big tech companies have discovered when trying to break into gaming.
"Some businesses take off in the first year, and others take many years," wrote Jassy, currently the head of Amazon's cloud computing division and Frazzini's boss. "Though we haven't consistently succeeded yet in AGS, I believe we will if we hang in there." "Being successful right away is obviously less stressful, but when it takes longer, it's often sweeter," Jassy wrote in the email Monday. "I believe this team will get there if we stay focused on what matters most."
The pledge of support from Jassy takes on added importance now that Amazon has said he will succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO this summer. The company's entry into video game creation in 2012 was originally ordered by Bezos, three people who worked with the founder have said. Since then, Amazon has spent billions of dollars, released two big-budget games -- both of which flopped -- and canceled many other projects. Its struggles reflect broader issues big tech companies have discovered when trying to break into gaming.
Too late? (Score:4, Funny)
And... (Score:1)
Committed (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure that Amazon is as committed as Google is to the video game ecosystem.
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I'm sure that Amazon is as committed as Google is to the video game ecosystem.
It's a low bar to set, remaining more committed than Google to one of their myriad rabbit trail projects.
Multiplayer focus, methinks. (Score:2)
I think just as a public relations thing, they'd avoid microtransaction-filled garbage in the first few rounds.
After all, if that's the first and only thing you saw on any marketplace... you'd drop it.
But given their rather online focus, I think too much of the company would be attached to the concept of remote data as a focus to just do single-player games.
So, we're probably going to get a bunch of data-fed multiplayer, with a focus on phone gameplay.
Which is cool for folks that like that.
But it also means
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Their last game was so bad they closed it after a month and refunded everyone [wikipedia.org]. It basically got the worst reviews a game ever gets from a game magazine.
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Their last game was so bad they closed it after a month and refunded everyone [wikipedia.org]. It basically got the worst reviews a game ever gets from a game magazine.
Indeed. Arrogance combined with incompetence. They will fail again. The only thing Amazon could do is buy a successful studio and let it do its thing.
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The only thing Amazon could do is buy a successful studio and let it do its thing.
The only thing I don't understand is why they didn't do this already. Taking this tack in a world where successful studios are being bought up and picked apart by the big guys would buy Amazon instant goodwill among gamers, so even if it didn't produce a good game, at least it would produce some good PR.
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Indeed.
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**Full Disclosure** - I work at Amazon Corporate Security, nothing to do with this topic.
Amazon is an interesting place to work, where they have so much money that "Failure Is An Option" is a real concept. During the new-hire orientation there's always a random long-time Amazonian who delivers a presentation to the newcomers. In our case it was a fellow who said, "I founded and run a new division that is currently losing $6 million a week. If this continues for a couple more months we'll shut the divisio
VR (Score:2)
Why don't they put like $10 billion into developing a VR headset that can do 5K per eye at 120fps? 5K per eye would make the image quality "screendoor/blur free" and that would make VR the ideal gaming platform. Of course 5K per eye at 120 fps requires a graphics card with double the power of the nVidia GTX 3090. But that's coming. When nVidia's tech, which is currently at 7nm, gets to 3nm 5K per eye at 120 fps shouldn't be any problem for their mid-range cards. That should happen by 2026.
As for the headset
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Of course 5K per eye at 120 fps requires a graphics card with double the power of the nVidia GTX 3090.
The pixels in a VR headset would be much smaller, so they probably wouldn't need as powerful of a video card to run them as on a computer display.
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Then when they got it at no extra cost they discovered they actually didn't want it.
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I actually want it, but I actually need my money for other stuff right now. And even if I didn't, the products are being developed rapidly enough that they are really only worth buying if you have completely disposable income, because they will be obsolete in short order. It only makes sense for early adopters to buy VR gear at this time.
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5K per eye would make the image quality "screendoor/blur free" and that would make VR the ideal gaming platform.
Image quality isn't the main reason people don't use VR.
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Why don't they put like $10 billion into developing a VR headset that can do 5K per eye at 120fps?
Where do I get a video card that can drive that?
Hell, where do I get a video card that can drive current VR goggles? They don't seem to be on shelves.
It would be a great success I think (Score:2)
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After all, that's what Cyberpunk did!
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I didn't even get a return email.
It's pretty obvious they didn't care about technical quality at the beginning.
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Nope. That will not help at all with creative decisions. Games do not just need to work, they need to be fun.
Before jumping into the bandwagons.. (Score:2)
Create yourself a good gaming studio, and make some memorable single player games.
Having games people can remember the name after many years and can associate with your studio helps quite a bit.
Also naming the game "remember me" won't work.
My guess (Score:2)
is Amazon is doing this to attract a younger crowd. Young people tend to dislike Amazon for being anti union and Jeff Bezos for simply being rich. However these same young people will line up with a credit card in their hands to pre-order the latest turd that EA will lay. Every shitty half finished game EA cranks out is met with complaints and boycotts, but they always come back again.
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I don't think the ones laying down cash-or-credit for prerelease EA turds are cognizant enough to dislike Amazon for any reason. There might be 15-y/o gamers who haven't been burned by EA enough yet to fit the bill... but they make up a vanishingly small percentage of the total Amazon user base. Certainly they alone don't have enough pull to make such a change at the upper levels - the highest level - of the richest organization ever seen in human history.
Bee, Zoës' retirement has a lot more to do with
The Amazon Plan (Score:4, Insightful)
"I believe this team will get there if we stay focused on what matters most."
It seems what "matters most" to Amazon lately, is creating their own brand to sell at a loss to drive the competition out of business.
Admittedly this will be a larger challenge, but not something I would put past them. Amazon has a lot of money to attract (as in steal) top talent.
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They tried this. Hired away a lot of top industry talent with big pay increases. But for all that, they made really bad decisions at the top (I'd put Lumberyard forward as a Prime example, pun intended), and all the talent in the world can't overcome so many bad decisions which end up sabotaging success.
I happen to personally know of a number of former Amazon Game Studio workers who are now back at their previous employer. I think at this point, it would take a considerable amount more money than I curre
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It seems what "matters most" to Amazon lately, is creating their own brand to sell at a loss to drive the competition out of business
Do you remember that this was the Amazon business plan since at least 1997?
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With everyone beholden to Amazon for everything they need to survive, there is no need for places like DC and the parasites inside the beltway.
While I tend to share your frustrations about the parasites in DC, Amazon is not Government, nor will it ever be.
And Amazon sure as hell isn't Military, nor will it ever be (at least while we're still sending meatsacks onto a battlefield.)
If money was all it took to overrule and override the need for government, we would have been known as the United States of Corporations a century ago. Greed is perfectly happy sustaining that unofficial title being a member of the Donor Class that collects all the benefi
Ban video games (Score:1)
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Like programming for game development :D
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Fuck that. UBI and full time game playing. And just to teach you a lesson I'm going to give up my woodworking hobby.
How will this end? (Score:2)
Often when Amazon sees a product selling well do they copy it and produce it themselves to reap all its profit. It works with simple things. That their first attempt at making games failed is likely a sign more of their greed and less of their intelligence. But I doubt it'll work next time, because Amazon will have to do something they're trying to avoid - they'll have to become creative and innovative. A game needs to be unique to become a seller and it cannot be a copy or a clone of an existing title for
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Amazon will have to do something they're trying to avoid - they'll have to become creative and innovative.
Amazon is creative and innovative. They came up with one-click purchase.
Praise the lord... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Praise the lord... (Score:1)
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I have come here to chew bubblegum and post stupid shit...and I'm all out of bubblegum.
Shitcock! [penny-arcade.com]
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New found? How old are you? CEOs have been worshiped as deities and divine oracles of wisdom since the Victorian Era ended and they took the place formerly occupied by royalty.
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maybe slightly wrong focus (Score:2)
Amazon's been reasonably successful at making games.
It's just that they've all, universally, sucked.
He should instead commit to maybe trying to make GOOD games?
Down the tubes (Score:1)
When a founding CEO leaves, the result is usually that bean counters of one form or another take over, and the company goes down the tubes. The most flagrant example was Apple, but it's everywhere. Intel is a more recent example.
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Apple was going down the tubes, but seeing how they reversed bad decision and came out with actual innovation since last year, I wouldn't count them out just yet. They also probably have a chance of really shattering people's expectations of AR, we'll have to wait and see.