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Amazon Games Expands in Europe With Bucharest Development Studio

Amazon announced its Bucharest development studio in May 2024 to expand its internal teams in Europe. Later Amazon material links the team to MMORPG work, including New World, but does not confirm its complete project remit or current staffing.
From TheFinanceBase Team2 min to read
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Amazon Games announced a game-development studio in Bucharest, Romania, on May 21, 2024, extending its internal development network into Europe. Amazon named veteran developer Cristian Pana as the studio’s head and said the team would support its games portfolio. The announcement described the plan at launch; it does not establish the studio’s current headcount, leadership, vacancies, or responsibility for particular games.

What Amazon announced in 2024

Amazon presented Bucharest as a new development studio, not as the launch of a consumer-facing game. The company said the team would contribute to its current and future portfolio. At the time, Amazon listed software developers, artists, designers, and animators among the disciplines it was hiring for. That launch-era hiring statement is not evidence that those roles remain open today.

Who was named to lead it

Amazon’s May 21, 2024 announcement named Cristian Pana as studio head. Amazon said he had more than 20 years of game-development experience and had most recently served as managing director at Ubisoft Bucharest. Those are credentials reported by Amazon at the time of the announcement, not a confirmation of who leads the studio now.

Why Bucharest

Amazon’s stated rationale was to expand its internal development teams into Europe while working across a broad portfolio. Christoph Hartmann, then VP of Amazon Games, said: “Expanding our internal development teams into Europe was a natural next step for us as we tackle our broad portfolio.” He also described Bucharest as an emerging European game-development city with a rich talent pool. These statements explain Amazon’s decision-making as the company presented it; they are not independent measurements of the local labor market.

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What is known about the studio’s work

At launch, Amazon described a portfolio that included live games, announced projects, and work it had not yet announced. It named New World and Lost Ark as launched live-service games, and mentioned Tomb Raider, The Lord of the Rings, and Throne and Liberty among announced projects. The announcement did not assign any of those games to the Bucharest studio, so the list should not be read as a project roster for the team.

A later Amazon-published 2025 report described the Bucharest team as specializing in MMORPGs and cited work on New World. That provides a later indication of the studio’s focus as Amazon characterized it, but it does not establish that Bucharest exclusively owns or leads New World.

Where Bucharest fits in Amazon Games

Amazon’s launch announcement described Bucharest as an addition to an internal network that then included development teams in Orange County, Montreal, San Diego, and Seattle. Amazon’s current studio-locations page continues to list Bucharest as a development location and describes its team as building from the ground up. The available descriptions do not provide a comparable measure of team size, capabilities, or project ownership across those locations.

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What the announcements do not establish

The public material described here does not verify Bucharest’s current headcount, current vacancies, current studio leadership, or a complete project-by-project remit. Job listings associated with the studio may indicate roles Amazon has advertised, but older postings are not proof that positions are open now. Anyone evaluating a current role should check Amazon’s live careers listings; anyone seeking a definitive project assignment should look for a direct, current statement from Amazon.

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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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