Amazon Showcases Twitch With a Massive Free Videogame (latimes.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: "Amazon.com's first big-budget video game is like street basketball, except played in a mythological world where athletes are armed," reports the Los Angeles Times, adding "Wait, Amazon makes video games?" Indeed. Two weeks ago Amazon Game Studios held their first live "unboxing event", and PlayBreakaway.com is now accepting sign-ups for alpha playtesting of their new Twitch-optimized team-based title, promising a game "made by streamers, for streamers." ("Taunt every interception, celebrate every kill, and highlight your dominance with instant replays...")

"If you think about what makes games so fantastic, it's the experiences you have with your friends," explained one Amazon Games official, in an interview with the Times Friday. "A long time ago it was in arcades, then over local networks, then online and now you have Twitch and e-sports and modding and cosplay. They are all about shared experiences."

Comments

Old school

[Jon Peterson]

"Taunt every interception, celebrate every kill, and highlight your dominance with instant replays"

Yeah, because that's what games are all about. Amazon has seen the future of gaming and it's a 15 year old brat playing counterstrike, forever.

Re:Old school

[vux984]

Its far worse than that, twitch isn't about the enjoyment of playing games, twitch is about being seen playing the games.

Twitch is to gaming, what instagram is to dining.

I, personally, have no interest in twitch and rarely watch other people play games for any reason; i'd rather play than watch. So I have the same disdain for watching other people play games that I have for watching sports on TV. I could not care less.

That said, I know lots of people watch sports for fun, and I'm not surprised lots of people now watch others play video games for fun. Whatever floats your boat.

I expect though, that games literally designed to be steamed via twitch, will generally be as shit as those "free2play/pay2win games designed to extract as much money as possible from microtransactions. Because in both cases they didn't set out to make a great GAME, they set out to subvert the game to other goals.

F2P games have shit timesinks and grinding and deliberately missing content in order to try and sell you shortcuts to the less shitty parts of the 'game'.

Likewise, I expect games designed ground up for twitch will compromise the integrity of the game in service to ""Taunt every interception, celebrate every kill, and highlight your dominance with instant replays" -- like a restaurant that has no atmosphere because the lighting is set up to make instagram photos looks better rather than foster an intimate dining experience...