The corporation – which owns Streaming platform Twitch – is making big strides into video games, with “hundreds of millions of dollars” being invested in its own game creation, plus the new cloud platform codenamed Project Tempo, reports The New York Times.
Multiple outlets reported last year that Amazon would launch its Stadia rival in 2020, however according to NY Times’ sources Project Tempo could slip into next year amid coronavirus disruptions.
Tempo would rival Google’s recently launched Stadia, Nvidia’s Geforce Now and Project xCloud from Microsoft.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently said Microsoft now views Amazon and Google as its primary competitors in the games business.
Amazon’s game development arm is said to be working on sandbox MMO New World, third-person survival shooter Crucible and “new unannounced projects”.
Both New World and Crucible, a team-based combat game featuring MOBA elements, will release in May.
Following the release of the titles, Amazon revealed it plans to introduce “interactive games” on Twitch over the summer, which will allow viewers to affect the gameplay they’re streaming.
“We love this idea that you have a player, a streamer and a viewer all sharing in this synchronous interactive environment of Twitch,” said Mike Frazzini, Amazon’s vice president for game services and studios.
Frazzini, who transferred from Amazon’s book division, said it wasn’t difficult to persuade the corporation to move into video games.
“It was very clear to everyone that people, customers, love video games. It was so obviously important to customers that we need to be doing something.”
He added: “The big picture is about trying to take the best of Amazon and bringing it to games. We have been working for a while, but it takes a long time to make games, and we’re bringing a lot of Amazon practices to making games.”
www.videogameschronicle.com
