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Amazon Games boss says development arm is here for the long haul

Amazon Games boss says development arm is here for the long haul

The VP of Amazon Games Christoph Hartmann has insisted that this arm of the tech giant is not going anywhere any time soon.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, the exec said that the company's internal studios had changed a great deal  since it expanded its ambitions in 2014 to work on PC and console titles. Hartmann says that there is a long-term vision in place for Amazon Games, in contrast to a lot of business decisions made within the games sector. 

This also comes in the wake of a damning expose that said that Amazon Games was poorly run; the company's brand new CEO Andy Jassy has since said that he is committed to this division of the business.

"There's a big difference between the Amazon Games of seven years ago and Amazon Games now," Hartmann said.

"There's a lot of potential success on the horizon. I came in three years ago with the background of having built a label for 2K before. When we interview people, I share my vision for it and they can see where we want to go. I think we're doing a good job and people like to work with us.

"One thing people really buy into here is our long-term thinking, because the games industry is known for either rushing things out of the door or giving up too early. Telling people they're going to get the time to focus on something, and if we get it right we're going to double down, is something that resonates with a lot of folks."

Amazon Games is on the verge of launching New World, a title that has been delayed a number of times. Hartmann has said that bumping back the release date was to make sure that the MMO is ready for players, adding that he believes this is the right approach.

"I'd rather we do fewer titles and do them right rather than do too many," he explains.

"We're taking a lot of smaller bets and taking risks on them, and then doing our big ones and working on them until the piece of art is right. That's what we want to be known for going forwards."

Hartmann joined Amazon back in 2018.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.