Search inside for the 'Game Development Policy', it's separate from the intellectual property commitment. Reasoning is likely from Amazon Games Studios? I think there may be a concern that someone at Amazon might make the next flappy bird or Minecraft and Amazon couldn't capitalize on it.

If it's in your own free time on your own hardware why would Amazon be able to capitalize on it? Employees are not slaves.

Salaried employees don't have free time.

I'm going to assume this is sarcasm.

Noncompete agreements are legal in many places outside California

The one time I met an Amazon games studio employee my response was, “Amazon has a games studio?”

He said it was a common response.

This is the only rationale I can come up with for the game development policy: AGS hasn't produced anything in 8 years and what they have in the pipeline looks disappointing so...cross your fingers and hope one of your employees makes the next Minecraft.

Heh. I worked in Amazon Games for a bit. It was a very common question. Along with, "What games have they made?" (Breakaway a 'sports brawler', The Grand Tour game a tie in for the show, New World an mmo about being a colonizer, Crucible a third person shooter.)

Woah, totally surprised by the New World mmo.

That looks like a PR landmine.