The head of Amazon Game Studios, Christoph Hartmann, is parting ways with the company amidst layoffs that have cut around 16,000 jobs across Amazon. The move comes as Amazon winds down its gaming ambitions, shifting focus to its cloud gaming service Luna.
Hartmann’s departure was reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, on the same day as Amazon announced a massive round of layoffs that will impact around 16,000 people company-wide. The move follows a previous round of layoffs last October that cut 14,000 jobs, hitting Amazon Game Studios particularly hard as the company scaled back its AAA development projects.
Christoph Hartmann has a long history in the games industry, from working on the original Grand Theft Auto to co-founding 2K Games in the early 2000s, and he was brought on board by Amazon Games in 2018. More recently, Hartmann may be more notorious for saying that AI wouldn’t take jobs in games as they “don’t really have acting.”
Despite Amazon’s huge resources, the company has mostly failed to make an impact on the games industry. Its first major game project Crucible was a notable failure, making the unusual decision to move from full launch back into closed beta, before being cancelled for good. While Amazon Games has seen some success with MMOs, including publishing Korean MMOs Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty in the west as well as its own project New World, player numbers have dwindled over the years and New World will be shut down for good at the end of January 2027. A planned Lord of the Rings MMO–Amazon’s second attempt at one–also appears to be dead in the water after October’s layoffs.
Amazon is still publishing upcoming Tomb Raider titles Legacy of Atlantis and Catalyst, but its major gaming focus will move to casual party games for its cloud gaming service Luna. We got our first look at the direction of Amazon Games’ pivot last October, with AI-powered party game Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg.
