Today, Amazon Games has announced that it has expanded operations globally by opening a brand new studio in Bucharest, Romania, and veteran developer Christian Bana will helm it.
Previously, Amazon Games only had studios based in North America, but they have officially gone global with their newest announcement of a game studio opening up in Bucharest, Romania. The new studio joins the ranks of existing development teams based in Orange County, Montreal, San Diego, and Seattle and will be responsible for supporting the studio’s diverse portfolio of games.
This news comes when the gaming industry continues to see massive layoffs in all aspects (with PlayStation recently cutting a big percentage in 2024), so it is a welcome change and, hopefully, a sign of things to come. Considering Activision just opened the new AAA studio last week named Elsewhere Entertainment, and former Respawn Entertainment developers also banded together to form a new studio last March called Giant Skull, it certainly feels that way.
VP of Amazon Games, Christoph Hartmann, says, “Amazon Games is focused on developing and publishing great games, and we have an ambitious long-term roadmap in front of us,” including “Expanding our internal development teams into Europe was a natural next step for us as we tackle our broad portfolio. Bucharest is known as one of the top emerging European cities for game development, and we look forward to tapping into the rich talent pool.”
Industry veteran Christian Pana, who has worked on Tom Clancy’s The Division, The Crew, Far Cry, and Avatar has been tagged as the new studio lead, and as a developer who started their career in Bucharest, Romania, 20 years ago, it will be an Amazon Games homecoming. Pana said, “I’m thrilled to join Amazon Games at a time when the team is actively building across an exciting roadmap,” concluding with, “What attracted me the most was that Amazon can open something and positively influence game development in Europe.”
While Amazon Games has kept what they’re working on under wraps for the mean time, fans can head to their official statement for more information regarding the exciting new studio announcement.
