Amazon terminates the development of its first large-scale video game Crucible, consumers will receive refunds

E-commerce giant Amazon has completed the development of Crucible, its first high-budget shooting video game, highlighting that the company is still struggling to make progress in the game market.

Amazon said on October 9 that the company has never seen Crucible to have a healthy and sustainable future. The team working on the project will be transferred to future game projects and consumers will receive refunds .

Crucible is seen as a key test for Amazon’s gaming division established in 2012. The game was full of negative reviews when it was released in May. A month later, Amazon launched a closed beta version of the game, which only invitees can play. Prior to the release of Crucible, the company had cancelled a previously released game and laid off employees in the game department.

Amazon said: “This is a loving job, and we are grateful to spend this time with you on Planet Cruze.”

The Crucible development team will now focus on another original game called “New World”. Earlier this year, Amazon said that it would release the game in August, but later postponed its release until spring 2021.

Developing original games is one of Amazon’s strategies to enter the video game market. In 2014, the company acquired Twitch, a live broadcast service dominated by gamers. In September of this year, Amazon launched a subscription video game streaming service called Luna, where players can play games without expensive hardware like game consoles.