Amazon has been trying to work its way into game development for a while, but the retailer has a new weapon in its arsenal. Eric Flannum, former lead designer for Guild Wars 2 over at ArenaNet, is now working for Amazon’s game development division. Those of you who have been paying attention to the online retailer’s history will note that Amazon lost two of its highest-profile developers during the summer, but the company appears to be back on track and pushing forward with development.
It’s not clear exactly what project Flannum is working on, but a recruitment post specifies that the Seattle-based studio is building something involving third-person competitive melee combat. Given Amazon’s desire for Twitch integration one could speculate that the game might be a MOBA of some sort, but we’ll need more details to know. What we do know is that he’s stepped away from Tyria and points related, and his contributions will be missed.
Quincha breetoplay I did read it… I also read the followup pieces by former and current employees refuting and slamming the article for being one-sided and relying on outdated info. :D
Nanulak Cars are so last millennium. Remember Amazon is working on autonomous delivery drones.
arktourosx Huh? “high quality MOBA.”  I don’t think there are any so even one would be an improvement. :-)
Damonvile I tossed apple in only because they are a titan of technology and work more dynamically as opposed to say Microsoft. Â They are not opposed to innovation.
anatheod I’d say their last 5 hardware endeavors were flops.  But, they are very persistent.
They run the largest cloud based service in the world – something most consumers do not know. Â So they don’t only run their shop.
ManastuUtakata breetoplay QuinchaÂ
That last is a large part of why we have unions, because upper management couldn’t historically be relied upon to conduct themselves in a humane and professional manner in regards to their workforce. Money gets in the mix, and some people turn into monsters, unfortunately.
Cheers,
breetoplay QuinchaÂ
Presuming these objections are not coming from one sided laissez faire sources themselves, this only really demonstrates the need for unionization in the tech and gaming workforce. Or at least upper management to conduct themselves in humane and professional fashion and manner towards their workforce or face harsh legal consequences IMO. /shrug
All they are missing now is self is self driving cars.
Probably another high quality MOBA. Just aren’t enough of these.
breetoplay Quincha Amazon has long had a reputation as a meat grinder among devs in the Seattle area. I even had an external recruiter trying to fill an Amazon position once tell me “It will look great on your resume if you can stick it out for a few years”.
I would like to think some of the worst examples in that article are hyperbole, but honestly the culture of large scale software development is generally broken, and “work till you drop” comes from peer pressure as much, if not more so than any culture management passes down. While I don’t (and hope I never will) speak from direct experience, nothing in that article was surprising to anyone in the software industry in the greater Seattle area.