As part of its move away from high-budget gaming experiences, Amazon has dropped its plans to publish the AAA narrative driving game by Maverick Games. According to The Game Business, the company is still seemingly on track to publish Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, however. In a statement, a spokesperson for Amazon Game Studios said that this decision will allow Maverick Games more flexibility to find a publisher that is more closely aligned with the studio’s priorities.
“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,” said the spokesperson.
“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.”
Creative director on the project Mike Brown, and co-founder and CEO Harindar Sangha thanked Amazon Games for the partnership in their statement. They also noted that the narrative-focused driving game continues to be in development, and that the studio has already begun talks with other publishers.
“We’re grateful to Amazon Games for their partnership and collaboration. Development of our debut title continues to progress as strongly as planned,” they said. “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 Games had originally announced that it would be publishing the title by Maverick Games back in May 2024. At the time, the division still had former-VP Christoph Hartmann as its leader. However, Hartmann left the company back in January.
While Maverick Games hasn’t yet revealed many details about its upcoming project, the studio is made up of industry veterans that have previously worked at large studios, including Forza Horizon developer Playground Games. Brown himself served as the creative director on the series before his departure.
Maverick Games was founded in 2023, and has been working on its driving game since then. The project has been described as a “narrative-led open world driving game”. It is still unclear, however, what form this narrative will take and what kind of driving gameplay will be offered. While the studio has a strong background in open-world racing titles, the lack of the use “racing” in the description might be an indicator of this project taking a different approach to the genre.
Amazon Games kicked off its move away from AAA game publishing back in October, when the company halted development on New World: Aeternum and laid off over 14,000 employees. In December, the company also sold the rights for in-development MOBA March of Giants to Ubisoft. The title was described as an “ambitious new entrant” into a genre dominated by Dota 2 and League of Legends.
