It’s tough being a game developer, especially at Amazon Games Studios. A new report from Eurogamer outlines chaos, confusion, and dysfunction on one of the tech giant’s game development teams as it pivoted to a project based on generative AI game in a desperate attempt to save their jobs, only for Amazon to apparently can them anyway when it didn’t work out.
Last October, Amazon laid off roughly 14,000 employees, which included significant reductions in its gaming business. A known casualty of the layoffs was New World: Aeternum, which is set to shut down in January 2027 despite being one of Amazon Games’ few success stories. However, there was another game unceremoniously canceled despite the valiant efforts of its developers.
According to Eurogamer, it was a Viking-inspired, third-person action comedy called Project Trident. Something unique about it was that it incorporated generative AI technology aimed at making the world and its NPCs more responsive. But according to sources who worked on the game, Project Trident used to be very different. They told Eurogamer it was originally a more serious Shadow of the Colossus-style adventure. It only shifted after the developers felt pressured by a corporate mandate to use AI in their game or face cuts.
Adapting to the new rules, the developers on Project Trident changed course from their original Shadow of the Colossus vision to creating what they described as a “Helldivers-style” game. Still, even that would not be its final form. As a part of the corporate mandate to include genAI, Eurogamer also reported that the Project Trident devs were given only 18 months to have their game ready to ship. Unable to meet that deadline, the developers managed to secure extra time, at which point Project Trident would transform again, this time into a single-player game. After years of developmental fits and starts, the team was working on finalizing a demo before Amazon pulled the plug with the October layoffs.
In a memo explaining the layoffs’ impact on the company’s gaming division at the time, Steve Boom, head of Amazon Games, Twitch, and audio, wrote, “We have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development work — specifically around MMOs — within Amazon Game Studios.” With New World already confirmed as shutting down, the statement also made it seem likely that Amazon’s ambitious MMO project based on Lord of the Rings did not appear long for this world either, and it now appears it was indeed canceled along with the unannounced Project Trident.
But Amazon is apparently still working on another Lord of the Rings game. In a statement to Eurogamer, Jeff Grattis, head of Amazon Games, wrote, “Our creative team continues to explore a compelling new game experience that does justice to Tolkien’s world; we are working closely with Middle-earth and remain excited about the IP.” Whether Amazon will let its devs complete the game, though, remains to be seen.
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