Amazon Games is expanding to Europe with the announcement of a new studio in Bucharest, Romania.
The decision to open its first European development Studio means that Amazon will now have studios in Orange County, CA, Montreal, San Diego, and Seattle, and the Romanian location is going to focus on supporting Amazon Games' portfolio of titles, including the currently running New World and Lost Ark, and future titles like Amazon's upcoming Lord of the Rings MMORPG, Tomb Raider, and Throne and Liberty.
The new studio announcement also mentioned Amazon Games’ other projects in the works, “unannounced projects from our San Diego and Montreal studios, and the independent studio Glowmade in the UK”. We haven’t heard anything about the Glowmade project since that deal was originally announced, and with the industry as tumultuous as it has been in the past year or two, it is good to at least see some mention that those as-yet unannounced projects still in the works.
Heading up the studio will be Cristian Pana, a veteran of the industry with more than 20 years’ experience working on games like Tom Clancy’s The Division, The Crew, Far Cry, Avatar, and more at Ubisoft and beyond. Amazon released an interview with Pana to mark the announcement of the new studio, where he goes into his experience and vision for Amazon Games’ first European studio.
With Amazon Games Bucharest, they’re also hiring to grow the studio. As for who Pana is looking for as they build out the team, he says “I look for people who are self-driven, motivated, ambitious, and not easily satisfied with the status quo. This makes for very dynamic team mechanics and an ability to adapt to different opportunities quickly”.
