Less than a decade into his tenure as the founder and head of Amazon Game Studios, Mike Frazzinin just announced that he's leaving the company for family reasons.
According to Bloomberg, the Amazon executive told long-time employees that he'll be stepping down, which was, in turn, received with congratulations and gratitude. Several employees from Amazon's ranks cite Frazzini's leadership as the studio's leader as a reason for Amazon Game Studio's success with New World and Lost Ark, the former of which is Amazon's first successful release and is often described as a relatively fresh take on a long-dormant genre.
Of course, Frazzini cracked his fair share of eggs to get Amazon Game Studios to where it is right now.
Frazzini might receive a lot of praise these days, but he and the studio's struggles were the laughing stock for years. Many even blamed his management style as the reason for the problems that Amazon Game Studios faced over the years. Case in point, Amazon Game Studios' first console release, The Grand Tour Game, came out in 2019 only for the studio to pull the game from storefronts. Another infamous example is Crucible, a bid-budget shooter that Amazon Game Studios ultimately canceled and shut down for good in late 2020.