Amazon has laid off almost 100 employees in its video gaming divisions.

The tech giant - which has created games such as 'Lost Ark' and 'New World' through its Amazon Games department - is thought to employ up to 5,000 people but had "evaluated current projects" and ultimately decided to cut around 2% of their workforce.

An internal memo sent by Games Vice President Christoph Hartmann read: "After evaluating our current projects against our long-term goals, the Games leadership team made the difficult decision to eliminate just over 100 roles across Prime Gaming, Game Growth and in our San Diego studio, while also reassigning some employees to other projects that match our strategic focus."

The tech boss went on to assure the workers that they would receive redundancy pay and although there was never going to be a "pleasant way" to share the news, insisted that Amazon is committed to treating everyone with "empathy and respect."

He added: "There is never a pleasant way to share this sort of news, but we are committed to treating our impacted employees with empathy and respect... I recognize that the impact of these decisions is not just to the business, but to our teammates and friends. It never feels good to say goodbye to colleagues, and I thank you for supporting them as they work through this change