Amazon Game Studios boss Christoph Hartmann is exiting his post as the tech giant shakes up its overall gaming strategy, Variety has learned.
2K veteran Hartmann leaves amid Amazon’s choice to pivot away from its AAA PC and console game development and focus on party games and third-party titles for its cloud gaming service, Luna.
Hartmann is leaving on the heels of Amazon’s Wednesday announcement of another round of corporate layoffs following a sweeping set of cuts last fall.
In October, Amazon laid off thousands of employees, including gaming division staffers. That move came just after the launch of original game “King of Meat,” the unveiling of a revamped version of Luna, and amid outlined plans to continue internal development on big-budget AAA titles (including massively multiplayer online games) alongside its new push for party games.
At the time of those October layoffs, Amazon audio, Twitch and games boss Steve Boom said that while the cuts were happening in connection with the overall company layoffs, the reductions also indicated a larger strategy shift within the games business, which consisted of Amazon Game Studios, led by Hartmann, and Amazon Luna, overseen by Jeff Gattis.
Amazon recently announced it will be releasing its new “Tomb Raider” video game in 2027, which will be preceded by the launch of a remake of the original Lara Croft game from the ’90s. Those titles are being developed as Amazon’s Prime Video is also working on a live-action “Tomb Raider” TV series starring Sophie Turner.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier was the first to report the news that Hartmann is leaving Amazon.
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From Variety US