Amazon is investing “hundreds of millions of dollars” into its streaming platform Project Tempo

Video games have and always will be dominated by giants. Provided that said corporation has the cash to splash on developing a new game and getting the word out via fancy marketing that dials the hype up to eleven, those massive brands with plenty of bank aren’t going to vanish overnight. And who has deeper pockets than Amazon at this point in human history?

The gigantic corporation has expanded beyond being just an online shopping hub that passes the slavings on to you, as it also has its own entertainment network, a hand in technology and it owns Twitch, the biggest name in streaming content. It’s no secret that Amazon is looking to get into games, but the amount of coin being tossed at this new venture is staggering. According to the New York Times via VGC, Amazon’s own cloud platform service is being built to take on Google’s Stadia (a low bar to pass right there), with “hundreds of millions of dollars” being invested into Codename Tempo.

Amazon isn’t just content to take on Google either, as their service is also aimed at being a rival for Nvidia’s Geforce Now and Microsoft’s Project xCloud. The house of Xbox already views Amazon as one of their primary competitors in the new decade of gaming, especially with the products and ecosystem that the brand is looking to establish.

Some of those games include an MMO sandbox by the name of New World, a third-person survival shooter called Crucible and more secret projects in the pipeline. Beyond that, Amazon will reveal “interactive games” on Twitch which will be released in the northern hemisphere summer. “We love this idea that you have a player, a streamer and a viewer all sharing in this synchronous interactive environment of Twitch,” said Amazon’s vice president for game services and studios Mike Frazzini to the New York Times.

It was very clear to everyone that people, customers, love video games. It was so obviously important to customers that we need to be doing something. The big picture is about trying to take the best of Amazon and bringing it to games. We have been working for a while, but it takes a long time to make games, and we’re bringing a lot of Amazon practices to making game.

Amazon’s plans have probably been set back massively by recent global turmoil, but it’ll be interesting to see just how much the online giant has learned from its competitors when it does come out swinging with its own gaming platform. Crucible, Amazon’s upcoming sci-fi shooter, is out in May and should provide a solid glimpse at just how much cash muscle the brand has to flex.

Last Updated: April 6, 2020