Amazon Games executive Hartmann is reportedly departing as the company shifts its focus away from PC and console gaming

Christoph Hartmann, the leader of Amazon Game Studios, is reportedly planning to depart from the company. This information comes from Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, who revealed the development on BlueSky. Additionally, Amazon appears to be reducing its focus on PC and console games, shifting towards its Luna cloud streaming service, which they announced in 2020 and launched in 2023.

This information coincides with the announcement of another wave of job cuts at Amazon, with 16,000 positions expected to be eliminated. Beth Galetti, Amazon's SVP of people experience and technology, stated the objective is to "reduce layers, increase ownership, and remove bureaucracy." This latest reduction is on the heels of another downsizing affecting 14,000 employees in October 2025.

It's uncertain at this point if the recent layoffs will impact Amazon's gaming segment, particularly as the company reduces investment in PC and console efforts. During the previous round in October 2025, there were already cuts in the gaming division, especially noticeable at its Irvine and San Diego locations, which included scaling back on developing large-scale projects like MMOs.

For instance, the game New World Aeternum is anticipated to go offline by January 2027.

Hartmann became part of Amazon in 2018 when he joined as the VP of games studios after spending over two decades at 2K Games, where he had been co-founder and president since 2005. At the time of joining Amazon, Hartmann remarked, "Gaming, today's favorite form of entertainment in the world, is connecting hundreds of millions of people." He expressed enthusiasm about joining a distinguished team at Amazon poised to elevate gaming, leveraging resources from AWS, Twitch, and other assets to create remarkable experiences globally.

When Hartmann spoke to GamesIndustry.biz in 2023 regarding the launch of New World, he mentioned, "Eventually, we'll get judged by our successes."