Amazon's gaming walkback continues as it ends publishing deal for a new racing game being headed up by former Forza Horizon creative director

Back in October 2025, Amazon effectively threw in the towel on its big-budget videogame ambitions, leaving itself only with the mysterious Tomb Raider game (which later turned out to be two games) and an open world racer being developed by Maverick Games, a studio headed up by former Forza Horizon creative director Michael Brown.

Well, you can cut that number by one, because Amazon has ended its publishing deal with Maverick.

"As part of our strategic evolution to focus on projects that leverage Amazon’s unique strengths and scale, including the recent re-launch of Luna and our Tomb Raider franchise partnership with Crystal Dynamics, we have decided to release Maverick Games from their publishing agreement with Amazon Game Studios," an Amazon Games rep told The Game Business.

"We have tremendous respect for the Maverick Games team and the compelling narrative-led driving experience they’re creating. This decision allows Maverick Games the flexibility to find a publishing partner whose strategic priorities are better aligned with bringing their game to market. We’re proud of what we accomplished together during our partnership and wish them every success in the future."

Brown and Maverick Games co-founder Harinder Sangha confirmed the end of the deal in a message posted to LinkedIn, writing that they are "no longer working with Amazon Games Studio."

"We’re grateful to Amazon Games for their partnership and collaboration. Development of our debut title continues to progress as strongly as planned. We’re in active dialogue with partners who share our long-term ambition for the IP and look forward to sharing more later this year."

Amazon had big ambitions for its gaming division, but was never able to gain any real traction. A big part of the problem was simply a lack of coherent strategy: Former Prime Gaming vice president Ethan Evans admitted in 2025 that the company basically reckoned that it could just throw money at the problem—and hey, fair enough, because Amazon has lots of it.

That approach, and the outcome, is perhaps best encapsulated by King of Meat, a co-op party game that Amazon expected would draw at least 100,000 active players. After spending lavishly on trailers and a Mr. Beast showcase, the game flopped massively, and is set to close for good in April, just six months after it launched.

Amazon's gaming efforts these days are focused on its Luna cloud gaming platform, and crapola like this.