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Amazon gears up to produce "ambitious new PC game".

by Mark Tyson on 8 June 2015, 11:06

Tags: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)

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Amazon has posted a series of job listings on the Gamasutra jobs board. Alongside the vacancies is an explanatory article about what the online retail and technology giant is planning. Amazon wants to hire "top talent for an ambitious new PC game project," who will join a core of creators from games such as Portal, World of Warcraft and BioShock.

The new games development team will be Seattle-based. Amazon really talks-up its ambitious plans and its commitment to gamers. The firm wants to "radically evolve gameplay," and suggests that Twitch, the AWS cloud, and technical innovation will all play a part in forging ahead to make new experiences. Current games have merely "scratched the surface in their power to unite players and will produce some of the future's most influential voices in media and art," says the visionary post.

As well as the big name games listed in the intro paragraph, Amazon says its already assembled team consists of people who have worked on Half Life 2, Left for Dead, Dota 2, Halo, Infamous, Shadows of Mordor and The Last of Us. It invites driven and ambitious people with AAA game experience to join Amazon and reside "on the tip of the spear for game design and technology". In the new positions game development employees will be able to "take interesting risks, and invent," says Amazon.

In all Amazon is advertising to fill 26 positions via the Gamasutra boards and there are other similar listings on the Amazon job site. The range of positions it seeks to fill include 2D and 3D artists, designers, tool/platform engineers, and other development positions.

Is anyone excited to hear about Amazon's new vision and 'ambitious' plans to develop PC games?



HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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This can either be really good similar to how Amazon has done “own video” content, or they can design a “Kindle” console with prominent advertising and also lock down Amazon devices to only play Amazon Ownware.

Personally I think the prior more likely. If they let games be created by the designers rather than forcing them in a certain direction for profit they might actually make some good games.
The name “Amazon Game Studios” is dreadful. I hope they consider changing that.
So it's gonna be a shooter on CryEngine, right? I'm sure I read something about them buying, or buying the rights to use CryEngine not long ago.. I won't judge until I see it, I guess..
Is anyone excited to hear about Amazon's new vision and ‘ambitious’ plans to develop PC games?
Not especially. It's way too soon.

I guess I agree with the above comments, firstly from Zao that it's hard to judge until we see it. Gaming history is littered with the corpses of so-so games that were massively hyped, and dramatically under-delivered. Some never even delivered at all. On the other hand, if (repeat IF) Amazon resource this seriously, it could amount to something truly impressive.

But Chadders makes good points - it depends what this is about, for Amazon. Personally, I very much like Kindle hardware, but much about the content platform sucks. So a lot depends not just on game graphics, or even gameplay, but on the platform implications.

And for all those reasons, it's way too soon.
Is anyone excited to hear about Amazon's new vision and ‘ambitious’ plans to develop PC games?
Not really - firstly it's not exactly if there's a shortage of publishers etc out there and the market is such that even some darn good teams have been “workforce managed” and been shut down. And actually I'm getting quite concerned by Amazon's “product creep” - it seems like there's few legal areas of commerce where they don't have ambitions - what next Amazon Sports Agent, Amazon International Arms, etc. I've actually been trying to find alternatives and avoid using them, but the extra costs are usually appreciable, and I'm not principled enough to want to pay £4-5 extra for a CD.

Secondly, I can't see the plus point for Amazon themselves. A title that's only available via Amazon is an obvious selling point, but how to leverage that into a continuing revenue stream? Obvious answers are:
a. Game will be crippleware, function-limited until you slap on some “optional” DLC;
b. It'll be linked into a (so far unannounced) Amazon gaming subscription service - and any multiplayer will need access to that service;
c. Ad-ware, the "for faster game playing, why not buy the 'Ultra Shooty TripleX MegaBlast game stick … currently on special offer, with free next day delivery, click here for details" after every level.

Meh! :puke: