Amazon laid off a significant chunk of its Comixology staff as part of its wave of mass layoffs on Wednesday. The company announced this in early January Eliminate 18,000 roles Starting January 18th. Employees across the company received the layoff notices on Wednesday, which were mostly focused on the Amazon Stores division, which includes Comixology.
News of Comixology’s layoffs hit social media on Wednesday; Comixology program manager Scott McGovern confirmed via Twitter that he and “numerous” other employees were affected. Current and former Comixology employees, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press, told Polygon that employees received emails notifying them of the layoffs. Then groups of people were dragged into separate meetings based on whether they were fired immediately, fired in a few months, or cut further into the year.
Workers immediately affected by the layoffs began being locked out of work accounts while they were still figuring out what was going on, some workers said. One worker said he was unable to access the severance pay information linked in the layoff emails due to the sheer number of people trying to access Amazon’s system.
Amazon declined to comment further its January 4 statement by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. The exact number of Comixology employees affected is unclear, but employees who spoke to Polygon said a significant number of people working on the platform will be affected before the end of the year. A smaller number of staff were immediately laid off on Wednesday, and more were told they would stay until mid-summer or longer. Layoffs are spread across most departments and positions, workers said.
When Amazon acquired Comixology in 2014, it was the clear leader in digital comics. At the time, the service operated both on Amazon’s platform and independently. In 2022, Amazon Comixology migrated to the Kindle infrastructure with a new app. The sudden change was poorly received by longtime Comixology users, who complained that the new app made it harder to read, shop and post on the platform. Employees who spoke to Polygon reiterated that Comixology employees care deeply about the quality of the user experience, but felt their hands were tied when it came to important decisions like migration.
The service itself offers more than 230,000 comics, graphic novels, and manga from top publishers such as Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse, and Image, as well as a range of independently published comics and Comixology Originals, a range of platform-specific and digital first edition comics. It’s unclear what impact the layoffs could have on Comixology Originals.
Amazon’s massive layoffs mirror a similar situation at Microsoft, which is shedding 5% of its workforce, with around 10,000 job cuts over the next two months. Microsoft’s gaming divisions will be included in the layoff, with studios like Halo infinity‘s 343 branches and starfield Developer Bethesda Game Studios affected by the cuts.
