Amazon layoffs appear to hit Lost Ark team, including producer and community lead

Amazon appears to have cut more staff tied to Lost Ark, including producer Henry Stelter and community and marketing lead Roxx. Both posted public farewells this week, though Amazon hasn’t shared a full list of affected employees.

Right now, it doesn’t look like the entire western publishing team is gone. Players have pointed to other staffers who still say they’re employed, so this seems to be a partial round of layoffs rather than a full shutdown. According to Stelter’s post, his time with Amazon Games has come to an end after several years with the company. Roxx also shared a goodbye message on social media.

The cuts come after Amazon said last October that it would keep supporting both Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty with regular updates, even as it scaled back other game efforts and pushed New World into maintenance mode. So far, Lost Ark updates are still coming. The game’s recent March team update laid out more upcoming content and referenced more than 11,000 player survey responses.

Lost Ark had a huge western launch, peaking at 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam, but its audience has dropped a lot since then. That doesn’t mean the game is going away, but layoffs hitting community-facing roles will raise questions about how much support Amazon plans to keep putting behind the western version.

Beyond that, the rest is unclear. Amazon hasn’t said whether this changes its publishing plans for Lost Ark, and there’s no confirmation of any broader handoff or contract change with Smilegate. For now, the game remains live and scheduled updates still appear to be on track.