The head of Amazon Game Studios, Christoph Hartmann, is reportedly leaving the company.
That’s according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who took to BlueSky to announce the job move. Amazon is also reportedly scaling back its PC and console games business, favouring its Luna cloud streaming service instead. That was announced in 2020, ahead of a 2023 launch.
This news comes alongside Amazon announcing that it was making another round of layoffs; this time 16,000 roles are set to be impacted, with the company’s SVP of people experience and technology Beth Galetti saying that this move was to “reduce layers, increase ownership, and remove bureaucracy.”
This comes hot on the heels of another 14,000 people being laid off in October 2025.
It’s unclear whether Amazon’s games business is being affected by this most recent wave of layoffs, but if the company is pulling back from PC and console then it’s certainly possible developers working in those areas will be impacted. In that October 2025 round of layoffs, Amazon’s games business saw cuts, with “significant role reductions” at its Irvine and San Diego offices. That’s on top of a reduction in “the amount of work it does on big-budget titles” such as MMOs.
One such title, New World Aeternum, is set to be taken offline in January 2027.
Hartmann joined Amazon in 2018 as VP of games studios back in 2018. This followed an over 20-year stint at 2K Games, the venture that he had been president of since he co-founded the company back in 2005.
“Gaming, today’s favourite form of entertainment in the world, is connecting hundreds of millions of people,” Hartmann said at the time.
“Between the teams at AGS, the incredible tools and technology from AWS, the global communities of Twitch and Twitch Prime, and all of the other assets around Amazon, there are few companies in the world set up to take gaming to the next level. I am incredibly proud and honoured to become part of Amazon’s highly talented and passionate group of people, to develop together hallmarks of gaming, bring amazing experiences to people all over the world, and build a gaming legacy for the years to come.”
When GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Hartmann in 2023 ahead of the release of New World, the executive said: “Eventually, we’ll get judged by our successes”.
