Amazon Games president Mike Frazzini has left the company to focus on his family. Thus, Amazon’s game development initiative took another blow.
Mike Frazzini announced that he is leaving the chairmanship of Amazon Games (formerly Amazon Game Studios). This announcement follows the release of Amazon Games’ latest hit, Lost Ark. Lost Ark was an almost immediate success, hosting over a million concurrent players on its first day of release in the West.
Amazon spokesperson Ryan Jones told Bloomberg that Frazzini’s departure was due to wanting to “focus on his family” after working for the company for years and serving at the founding of Amazon Games. Jones noted that Frazzini will be remembered for all of his timely contributions at Amazon Games, including the launches of the studio’s biggest titles, New World and Lost Ark.
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While Lost Ark continues to attract gamers and viewers on Amazon-owned and operated Twitch, New World was released at a time when MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV Online and World of Warcraft were thriving and ultimately didn’t make a lasting impact. Still, with Lost Ark, Amazon Games has found a way to re-enter the MMO space, maintaining an average of 500,000 concurrent players since its release and peaking at over a million players, according to Steam Charts.
It is currently unclear who will take over Amazon Games. The names of the new games from the studio are also not known. Many of the studio’s games scheduled for release in the near future were shelved at some point in development.
