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Amazon isn’t just expanding its retail reach, it’s also expanding its gaming presence as well. This is especially true since the company purchased game-streaming streaming Twitch back in 2014. Now the company wants to bring a new type of gaming experience.
Built on the company’s huge AWS cloud platform, GameOn will allow developers to integrated competitions natively into PC, mobile and console games. Additionally, it will allow companies to offer on-game and real-world prizes that are fulfilled by Amazon (no surprise there).
Of course, through this service, Amazon will continue to profit, earning about a third of a cent for every play. Interested developers can use the APIs for free until May 1st, and the first 35,000 plats per month will be completely free, for a limited time of course. In terms of physical prizes from Amazon, they will only be available in the US when launched.
Prior to announcement, Amazon had been testing GameOn with Millenial eSports’ Eden Games, nWay, Mindstorm and other developers in games “ranging from casual to core across different genres,” the company said. GameOn’s APIs will allow devs to do matchmaking, in-game tournaments and leaderboards. “GameOn saved us months of development and a whole lot of maintenance and logistical overhead in the long run,” said Eden Games CMO Pascal Clarysse.
Amazon has said that the service will soon be used in competitions for Beach Buggy Racing 2 and a new title called Doodle Jump, Amazon said. “Game developers have consistently told us they are looking for ways to increase player engagement and retention,” said Amazon Competitive Gaming Director Marja Koopmans. “We built Amazon GameOn to give developers simple, yet powerful tools to foster community through competitive gameplay.”
As part of DGC 2018, GameOn is one of Amazon’s biggest announcements for its Amazon Developer Day, which launches today in San Francisco. Amazon has now found another way to profit more from its increasingly-popular AWS platform. Games and developers like Ubisoft already use Amazon’s AWS servers for competitions and host multiplayer games.
