%Amazon ($AMZN) Games studio head Mike Frazzini is stepping down from his role to focus on family, according to the company.
Frazzini helped lead Amazon’s game division since 2009 and played a role in building the company’s gaming studio and products.
Last year, media reports detailed several issues within Amazon Games, including allegations that Frazzini lacked experience with games and often rejected the advice of the developers he hired.
The reports also claimed that Frazzini would understaff projects and have developers “chase” the latest trends — projects that would ultimately become failures, like the Fortnite-inspired Intensity and League of Legends-like Nova that never made it out of the development pipeline.
In 2018, %AmazonGames canceled its fantasy sports game Breakaway, and in 2020, it pulled The Grand Tour, a racing title based on a show of the same name, due to poor consumer reception.
Crucible, a free-to-play Overwatch-style shooter game was one of Amazon Games’ biggest letdowns — the studio canceled the game after releasing it and then putting it back into a closed beta.
Last year, Amazon chief executive officer (CEO) Andy Jassy wrote an email to staff members regarding the Games division, saying: “Though we haven’t consistently succeeded yet… I believe we will if we hang in there.”
Amazon Games has seen success with New World, a digital role-playing game released last fall, but even that game had a rough release; its launch date was pushed back multiple times before it finally went live in September 2021.
Amazon’s free-to-play Lost Ark, which was initially available only in South Korea, has also been well-received. %LostArk became the second most played game on Steam following its release in North America last year.