We now know quite a bit more about Amazon’s push into video games: the tech giant is planning to release its first big budget video games next month, is developing interactive Twitch experiences, and has a cloud gaming platform called Project Tempo in the works.
In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times, Amazon executives have revealed a few more snippets about these projects, intended to pull yet more people into the Amazon ecosystem that already covers everything from cloud storage to smart speakers.
Not all of this is brand new – Amazon announced that development on games including Crucible and New World had started back in 2016, while rumors of a cloud gaming service have been swirling for more than a year.
However, the NYT article has padded out some of this info. The video game streaming service is apparently codenamed Project Tempo, and an early version could be launched at some point during this year – assuming the coronavirus outbreak doesn’t get in the way. Details are sparse at the moment, but it’s likely to be along the lines of Google Stadia or Nvidia GeForce Now.
Launching soon
As for the sci-fi themed first person shooter Crucible, and the massively multiplayer online game New World (which we’ve already taken a look at), they’re both due to launch next month. The spread of Covid-19 has delayed the Crucible launch, which was originally planned for March.
The NYT confirms that there’s another MMO in the works as well, as reported last year, which is going to be based on the Lord of the Rings world. Amazon has developed its own game processing engine Lumberyard to underpin all of these efforts, which we’ve also heard about before.
Finally, the article touches on interactive experiences that could potentially be coming to the (Amazon-owned) Twitch platform, so that viewers can join in with the action they’re watching. That could be rolling out in the next few months.
World economy and health permitting, it looks as though 2020 is going to be a big year for Amazon in gaming, as it looks to take on Sony, Microsoft, Google and the rest in this space in earnest. As soon as any of these projects go live, you’ll hear about it here.
