Amazon Is Making A Serious Move In The Gaming Industry

Amazon is making a serious move in the gaming industry as the retail giant declares they are “all in on video games.”

According to The Motley Fool, Amazon’s serious move in the gaming industry includes going on a hiring spree to bring in veterans in the industry who have a history of working for companies such as Electronic Arts and Sony. Amazon is hiring these gaming industry veterans to assist in developing games for Amazon Game Studios. The Motley Fool notes Amazon currently has more than 100 job openings for game developers for their Amazon Game Studios.

For Amazon, this serious move into the gaming industry is about more than just snagging a piece of the $100 billion revenue the industry brings in. Amazon is also after the hearts of the game developers that need cloud storage in order to connect players through online multiplayer games. The Motley Fool speculates Amazon’s acquisition of the game-streaming website Twitch back in 2014 may give them a significant advantage in the gaming industry.

Amazon believes gaming is becoming the largest form of entertainment on the planet and that is largely why the retail giant has decided to make a serious move into the industry. This speculation on Amazon’s part becomes obvious when someone looks at how much time is spent on video games. In 2016, Americans spent more time playing mobile games than streaming videos on services such as Netflix.

In 2016, Americans spent roughly 43 billion hours playing Activision Blizzard games. This is comparable to the 45 billion hours of engagement Netflix users contributed during the same year.

In order to dive into the gaming industry, Amazon had to create their own game engine called Amazon Lumberyard. Amazon Lumberyard is going to make it possible for professional game designers to create their own games using built-in integration allowing life game broadcasts using Twitch. The game engine will also utilize the cloud hosting services of Amazon Web Services (or AWS for short). Through Amazon Game Studios, Amazon has been using Lumberyard to develop games as a way to show game developers just how powerful the tools Amazon has to offer are.

Lumberyard working with AWS is an extremely appealing opportunity for gaming designers as it provides them with the ability to create a game that will immediately capture a large audience the moment it is released. This game developing opportunity is also going to provide game developers with a lot of time and money, so they can focus on developing games instead.

Amazon’s drive to move into the video game industry is pretty consistent with the customer-centered experience the company has always offered. The retail giant has already invested a significant amount into the content it is able to offer Prime members through free movie and TV streaming with the membership. It is understandable that Amazon would want to invest just as much into providing customers with a video game experience that is just as appealing as their TV and movie streaming service.

Amazon has already begun to implement Twitch features as new and exciting perks for users with a Prime membership. In September of 2016, Twitch Prime was launched. It is a premium service for Twitch users that is available for free for anyone who has a Prime membership. This offered Prime members the opportunity to watch ad-free streaming through twitch and download free game content including some of the more popular content currently on the market.

Motley Fool notes it is now obvious that Amazon purchased Twitch for $970 million back in 2014 for so much more than just to use it as a way to monetize advertising. As Amazon continues to move into the gaming industry, it would appear as of Twitch is becoming more and more of a valuable asset for the retail giant to have.

As Amazon continues to put together a video game world for their customers, the company will likely become a popular platform of choice for both video game developers and players.

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