After already two games launched (New World, Lost Ark), creative studios and a publishing entity, Amazon struck a blow in December by announcing the upcoming arrival of the next tomb Raider under his banner.
While Microsoft and Sony PlayStation are struggling to find out if call of duty will be in shared custody or if Activision Blizzard King will fall into the American fold, the video game sector continues to see a few ambitious mature.
Owner of WeChat in particular and the associated services, Tencent has become the world’s leading video game publisher by buying up many small, renowned studios (Riot Games, Supercell, Sumo Digital, Timi, Funcom, etc.) and by taking shares with bigger ones (Ubisoft, Epic Games, Paradox, Don’t Nod, Activision…). But Amazon also harbors some hopes of doing well by in turn investing massively in the video game industry.
In mid-December, the Seattle band even announced that they would be releasing the franchise’s next installment. tomb Raider after an agreement reached with the developer Crystal Dynamics. It will be a cross-platform single-player narrative game set in the adventures of Lara Croft universe and published by Amazon Games. A nice coup succeeded by a newcomer who is ultimately not one.
A project that is being built serenely step by step
Because this appetite for video games is not new at Amazon. For several years, the e-commerce giant has been building its project little by little, even patiently. The reflections began a little over six years ago before taking a new turn and experiencing a boost with the arrival of Christoph Hartmann in the summer of 2018 as Vice President of Amazon Games Studios (now Amazon Games), then president since March 2022.
It must be said that the man presented himself with quite a pedigree, having contributed to launching Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K or Bioshock at 2K Games, the game publisher he co-founded. He was called upon to develop the games, but also to create studios and put the Amazon footprint on the sector. “Both Amazon and Netflix consider the video game industry to be very interesting, very innovative”, explains to Tech&Co Roisin Doyle, global director of press relations at Amazon when we discuss Amazon’s projects in video games at the last Gamescom. . “It’s a growing industry and we want to put together as compelling a service as possible.”
Before that, Amazon was living in the middle of the pixels, lacking inspiration or with too much inspiration from elsewhere. His first two developed games, Breakaway (in the spirit ofOverwatch) and Crucible (inspired by battle royals like Fortnite), were abandoned, even before having really seen the light of day for the first, after a few months for the second. Since then, the group has reviewed its copy and is firing on all cylinders.
First of all by relying on Twitch, bought nearly a billion dollars in 2014, to attract streamers very focused on live around the video game (bought on Amazon if possible). A first step on the long hoped-for path. Then, Twitch Prime became Prime Gaming in 2020, boosting Prime membership for free with exclusive content on popular games (bonuses, packs, equipment, etc.) and free PC or smartphone games to subscribers. The service is even associated with prestigious video game events such as the Game Awards or the Summer Game Fest.
Distilling its small white pebbles on the road to success, Amazon is advancing step by step. The American company has set up or bought four development studios (San Diego, Orange County/Irvine, Montreal and Relentless Studios in Seattle). Two PC games have boosted its rating in recent years: New Worlddesigned by Amazon Games Studios Orange County, and Lost Arka Smilegate game published by Amazon in Europe and the United States.
Two parts also of its activity now. “These are the two parts of our business in video games”, underlines Roisin Doyle. “There are our studios that create games and our publishing branch to identify and support independent studios in order to promote their works.” Thus, Amazon Games has already announced the agreement to distribute the next tomb Raider from Crystal Dynamics, but also Blue Protocol, a multiplayer action-RPG title from Bandai Namco, and an all-new license from Disruptive Games (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 and Diablo II: Ressurected).
“We have had incredible success with New World and Lost Ark“, admits the head of Amazon Games. “These are MMOs that we succeed in, but in the coming years, we will also strive to diversify the styles of play to establish our reputation in the sector.” And to add with mischief: ” 2023 is going to be a good year, a very good year even. We will have many more announcements to make.”
2023, the year when everything will play out for Amazon?
Because Amazon Games has great ambitions and gives itself the weapons. The service also has a foothold in cloud gaming with its service Amazon Lunalaunched to compete the future defunct Google Stadia in the United States and which will survive it thanks to the power of AWS servers and better project preparation.
Amazon is thus weaving its web to establish itself in all areas of video games. Without making too much noise. “We are not strangers, but we are a bit of a new player in the arena”, we are told. “People got to know us through New World and Lost Ark. It will take a few more years and quite a few games to build our reputation. But it’s a great challenge that we set ourselves.”
It is probably not without reason that his name had been whispered a few months ago as a potential buyer of Electronic Arts. The case is also not closed. A big fish which would then bring its owner into another dimension and give a little more legitimacy to the overall project which has only known one pitfall in recent years, the cancellation of the adaptation of the game from the universe from Lord of the Rings in 2021, after a conflict with Tencent, the studio’s new owner in charge of development.
“It’s an exciting time for gaming. The next five years are going to be interesting,” predicts Roisin Doyle. “We can’t say more for the moment, but we have a lot of things to come. We’ll talk about it in the summer and you won’t be disappointed”. Appointment made to find out if Amazon has definitely entered the game or not.
