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Amazon Hiring Devs For Its First PC Game
An anonymous reader writes: Several outlets are reporting that Amazon is preparing to dip its toes in yet another market: PC video games. They're specifically hiring for this purpose now, though they seem to have had plans for some time: "In addition to acquiring Killer Instinct developer Double Helix last year, Amazon has also hired notable developers like Kim Swift, designer of Portal, as well as Clint Hocking, who previously worked on franchises like Far Cry and Splinter Cell. Meanwhile, according to a report from Kotaku, Amazon has spent a lot of cash licensing the CryEngine, the same one used to make high-end PC games like Crysis 3. Outside of development, Amazon also acquired game streaming service Twitch last August for $970 million, and made gaming a big focus for its Fire TV media box."
Amazon is not EA. Their attitudes are different and their profoilo is a pretty diversified at this point.
Will the game be any good? I have no idea. But I'm excited to see new money come into the market and try things.
Frankly, I like games more than I like movies or tv shows. My music collection hasn't changed much further in the last 10 years. I've hit that age.
And that means if you want to sell me content, you have to target me. And game... I likes them.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I get why Amazon wants to/has to make their own video content: People expect it these days and they have to compete with Netflix and HBO. But in gaming, there are already a ton of publishers and a ton more developers in all shapes and sizes and for all markets and kinds of games.
It is a great time to be a PC gamer. There's so much choice. If you don't think there is, try playing something new instead of the same old things.
Anyway, there are a lot of people making games. Some great, some good, some bad. What is Amazon going to bring to this that isn't already being done? It's not like the video service where they have to meet expectations, and it's not an unmet need since there already are tons of games.
Amazon is hiring some heavy hitters and spending A-level cash on game engines. This says they intend to bring out an epic franchise brand, which means they will have to spend a LOT on making it, and take years, and after all the work, maybe people won't want to play it. Most games end up like that, especially the big, grand, spendy grand attempts. Very few of those command lasting presence. So they're basically betting a lot on what will probably be ONE title and the odds are it won't be huge hit. Maybe a moderate hit. Why do this? Why take on that financial risk when there are plenty of existing companies and people who already do that?
Amazon already sells their games, and now they have Twitch to show them off too. Amazon doesn't need to make content in this space.
Sig for hire.
Due to the lack of sufficiently advanced image recognition software Amazon is going to employ gamers to identify shelf items.
who used to dictate the placement of every pixel on Amazon website, according to Steve Yegge.
Fire smartphone had 3-D features that required immense processing power (which meant sacrificing battery life and other things) and therefore written off by the engineers as being not practical. But Bezos was in love with the features and he basically said the phone ships with 3-D or you're all fired.
I can't see the Amazon game ending well.
they dont have to create art, they have to create something that sells like reality tv and big mac's
art is not even a consideration
From what I've seen, there seem to be very few H1Bs in the videogame industry. It's also been surprisingly resilient to outsourcing as well. It could have something to do with both the high degree of technical specialization required, as well as the close coordination required with artists, game designers, sound designers, composers, and QA, meaning that videogame programmers have to be pretty good about working and communicating with non-technical developers / team members. A lot of software development is mostly about writing code, but creating a game requires a very diverse team to work very closely together and iterate quickly on new ideas and concepts.
I know one game development colleague who went to Amazon not too long ago. Maybe I'll meet up with him for lunch one of these days and see how he's enjoying things there. Amazon strikes me as a Microsoft-type developer, and that doesn't bode well for their first offering (for example, the first Kindle was hideously designed). They tend to get things right on their second or even third go-round though. I'll be curious to see what they can do... they certainly have the financial backing to do something quite impressive, but money alone won't make a great game. Just ask Curt Shilling.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.