Amazon Game Studios Chief Exits as Company Shifts Strategy
Christoph Hartmann, the head of Amazon Game Studios, left his position as the tech giant adjusted its overall gaming strategy, Variety reported on January 29, 2026. Hartmann, who co-founded Take-Two Interactive publisher 2K Games, departed as Amazon moved away from its AAA PC and console game development focus.
The move came after a turbulent year for the video game industry. According to a GDC study, one-third of U.S. video game industry workers were laid off in 2025.
In other news, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing on Thursday, January 29, 2026, to call for a "comprehensive strategic partnership" between the UK and China, according to the Associated Press. While neither leader publicly mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump, the AP reported that his challenge to the post-Cold War order was clearly a factor in their discussion of deepening ties amid growing global turbulence.
Meanwhile, the rise of artificial intelligence continued to reshape the job market. A LinkedIn report indicated that AI is currently creating more jobs than it is replacing. Fortune noted the emergence of "new collar" jobs like forward engineers, data annotators, and forensic analysts. Companies are investing heavily in AI, but Fortune pointed out that preparing for the future "costs moneyand often an awful lot of it."
Companies are also grappling with how to best integrate AI into their existing workflows. At education company Pearson, Chief Human Resources Officer Ali Bebo and Chief Technology Officer Dave Treat are carefully considering which tasks are appropriate for AI automation. "What are the tasks that create a strong human connection?" Bebo asked, according to Fortune. "We want to maintain those." Pearson has deployed a chatbot called Cara to answer employee questions, but the technology is not intended to replace managers entirely.
In the music world, K-pop continued its crossover success. NPR reported that crossover K-pop acts like the girl group Katseye, Rosé's single "APT.," and Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters have secured Grammy nominations and achieved new levels of visibility. Sheldon Pearce of NPR noted that these crossover hits have "little in common with the culture that birthed them" but are succeeding in the mainstream.
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