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[Bloomberg] Amazon Can Make Just About Anything—Except a Good Video Game
- Thread starter --R
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John Bautista, one of the main designers for KI recently left to join Zenimax Online. So he will be part of Microsoft soon
A lot to uncover in this fantastic article. Make sure to give the whole thing a read.
Amazon Can Make Just About Anything—Except a Good Video Game
The company produces successful movies, TV shows, e-readers and speakers, but gaming has proven difficult to crack.www.bloomberg.com
I'd love to but Bloomberg makes it literally impossible. A giant splash screen telling me to sign up, and every option just brings me back to the home page? Thanks web designers lol.
I think there are scales of bad industry practice around bonuses. While paying them based on length of service obviously isn't as bad as paying them based on factors beyond their control like arbitrary values on metacritic scores, the article does outline how it has led, in this company's management culture, to hindered critical discussion that might improve products. As people are incentivised to protect their job and benefits from hostile management that doesn't want to hear criticism, rather than disagree with apparently poor leadership, even while the company policy says to do the opposite.
" Amazon didn't give employees much financial incentive to release anything, either. Most big game companies pay staff bonuses based in part on the critical and commercial response to their games, but Amazon's stock plan only rewards employees for time spent at the company. That led some to prioritize job preservation over anything else, say three former employees. "
I gotto say, I see this as a positive. If good pay without bonuses (that are tied to sometimes arbitrary numbers that have nothing to do with job or company performance) leads to job-preservation tactics among employees, then it's a company culture problem (or they are working in bad hierarchies on uninspriing projects) and not an argument to push for more darwinian capitalism.
I gotto say, I see this as a positive. If good pay without bonuses (that are tied to sometimes arbitrary numbers that have nothing to do with job or company performance) leads to job-preservation tactics among employees, then it's a company culture problem (or they are working in bad hierarchies on uninspriing projects) and not an argument to push for more darwinian capitalism.
i guarantee you the web designers and developers had no say
execs in every business drive this shit
Fair enough but isn't this what Netflix has been doing. Essentially putting pressure on the rest of the industry to step up and pay their creatives handsomely otherwise they will poach your top creators.
Great read. Really interesting to read about how tone deaf corporate bro culture. I hope all artists and developers who were ignored in meetings land at a place that truly values their talent.
It's also funny to think that during all that time Amazon was trying to make games with infinite resources ConcernedApe toiled away by himself making an absolute classic.
Edit: interesting isn't the right word about bro culture. It's disgusting and childish, but astounds me that it is even allowed to exist to this day. Especially at a place as big as Amazon.
It's also funny to think that during all that time Amazon was trying to make games with infinite resources ConcernedApe toiled away by himself making an absolute classic.
Edit: interesting isn't the right word about bro culture. It's disgusting and childish, but astounds me that it is even allowed to exist to this day. Especially at a place as big as Amazon.
No.
That COD line just reads so badly. How do you even respond to something like that from higher-ups.
RIP Double Helix.
That went exactly how anyone would've thought it would, they swallowed them up, took away their identity and then wasted all that talent.
I'm against the idea that someone who has no knowledge of games is unfit to lead a studio.
Yamauchi absolutely despised the gaming landscape and anything attached to it (slight hyperbole) but he still ran Nintendo in its heyday.
They just have to listen to the people who actually DO things.
Know your lane and don't stand in the way
Yamauchi absolutely despised the gaming landscape and anything attached to it (slight hyperbole) but he still ran Nintendo in its heyday.
They just have to listen to the people who actually DO things.
Know your lane and don't stand in the way
Shit, I'd sell my company in a heartbeat if Amazon offered me enough money...shitty leadership or not.
Amazon was hiring senior people at double market rate + stock that would vest after 3 years. they were on 300k/yr+ with another quarter million-plus in stock if they stuck it out. I'd work at amazon for 3 years for a million dollars.
Likely some of those devs took the payday and are able to use the money they earned to fun new independent projects.
this is all wildly unsurprising if you know anything about how amazon is run. they're successful despite their organizational structure, not because of it. This guy definitely needs to get bumped from the gaming division though.
So far, probably for the first Battlefront. Precise and concise, understandable experience and execution.
If Amazon can't learn the lessons of Genshin Impact then they are totally hopeless as a corporate minded gaming developer.
I thought MSFT spending spree in early 00s was the biggest loss of opportunity for a company of its size but here we are.
$500M/year for absolutely nothing.
Not a disappointed game or a bulky unwieldy console I don't even want to think of buying.
N O T H I N G
How the fuck did Amazon not close that division already, it's making zero cash and is a massive pit hole!
e: direct demand from Bezos is how.
Fascinating article.
The game was just ok (I did buy it at a bargain price), but I had no idea it killed Take-Two. That doesn't sound right.
The game was just ok (I did buy it at a bargain price), but I had no idea it killed Take-Two. That doesn't sound right.
i know this is not how pitch works at all but i can SEE a scene of a person entering a room of executives, showing the "Battlefield 1942" logo on a power point and then saying "but how about this" and then the next power point slide appears like a "star wars" on top to make like a "Star Wars' Battlefield
I wish that worked for my billion dollars idea, What if Battlefield, but with sexy vampires that are also pirates!?
shocked that a dogshit company in basically every way is also dogshit when it comes to making games
yeah that new world RPG has always rubbed me the wrong way, we really don't need a settler colonial wet dream fantasy. so of course the amazon dudebros thought it was fine lol
yeah that new world RPG has always rubbed me the wrong way, we really don't need a settler colonial wet dream fantasy. so of course the amazon dudebros thought it was fine lol
but yeah, i also wanted this to work to my billion dollars idea "what if Pocket Fighter 2, but copy smash bros"
You can read the whole story in PRESS RESET: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry, out May 11 at a bookstore near you.
THIS SHIT HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE 2012?!?
I recant any criticism I ever had for early gaming MSFT or even Google or Stadia
Ironically enough we can find your books on Amazon, right?
If we ever do meet, I do want to have something for you to sign :p ,
You're doing fantastic work really.
From what I've heard and read, Netflix respects creators and gives them tons of money and free liberties instead of trying to impose certain things on them for a status quo. They still end up taking the blame for when a project gets screwed up(like the live action Death Note movie) but those faults weren't because of them. That's the difference.
Edit: On a side note, Netflix's other problem is when a show barely performs under quo and isn't given a chance to make a third season, which leaves a lot of shows stuck in Season 2 hell which is horrible when they end on a cliffhanger.
Compare that to something like the recent mismanagement of the Star Wars movies, where maybe someone didn't want to make a Han Solo movie but the suits decided it needed to happen because Han Solo is a popular character and sells.
It's not just video games. Take prime videos, the smart TV app is simply a letdown and the content is just about okay to keep you busy for a couple months, but one runs out of good content sooner than later. Maybe they just don't get entertainment altogether.
Thanks man. Keep up the good work. I'm sure Bezos is not fond of you right now.
Oof.
So you see this post ?
So I'd like to add that at least having a vague knowledge on the thing your team is leading is probably a good idea.
Like a rando at e3 has deeper knowledge than the dude at the head of the gaming division at Amazon!
Amazon like alot of companieshave tried to chase after trends. oh a MOBA is popular try and make a moba. Oh a shooter Moba is the new hot shit well we better make a shooter Moba etc. New World is their only truly unique approach at a game and honestly I think it could be a huge success for them.
Morbidly this is the least shocking detail from the story.
Doubt there's many tech companies that aren't rife with sexism and the other usual gross shit.
Pretty much any great developer would struggle when the orders were these:
Chasing trends like a dog chasing cars:
All that mattered was that they make the most ambitious games possible, ones that would draw gamers into the Amazon Prime ecosystem and showcase the technical capabilities of its cloud division. Allowing 10,000 people to play in a single game session was given to the new team as a lofty target. Two projects under this directive became known around the office as the "Bezos games."
...The game studios even established their own separate set of principles, although the credos frequently changed and sometimes were in tension with one another, say four people who worked there. Each game world should accommodate as many players as possible, yet also be fun to play solo at the same time. They had to be huge financial successes on a Call of Duty scale but also innovative and unlike anything the world had seen before. To experienced game developers, these rules seemed like a surefire way to not release anything.
Chasing trends like a dog chasing cars:
Some meetings got sidetracked when Frazzini, armed with the latest VentureBeat article about whatever game was making the most money that month, demanded they chase a new trend, four developers say. The team wound up designing lesser versions of popular games, a desperate strategy laid out in a recent Wired article. Riot Games Inc.'s League of Legends inspired an Amazon project called Nova that was canned in 2017. Epic Games Inc.'s Fortnite led to another Amazon game, Intensity, canceled in 2019. Activision Blizzard Inc.'s Overwatch begot Amazon's Crucible, which would suffer a similar fate.
