Why does Amazon make games?

When Amazon makes a new movie or TV show, the reason is pretty clear: the tech giant needs to expand its Prime Video streaming service. One of the best ways to do this is by creating (or buying) exclusive series and movies. But when Amazon is developing a new video game, the reasons aren’t so clear. The company’s next MMO, New world, is not exclusive to Amazon’s Luna cloud service or Twitch (which Amazon also owns). It’s a classic PC game that you can buy on Steam.

But according to Christoph Hartmann, vice president of Amazon Games, the reason is quite simple: if you want to be involved in entertainment in any way, you can’t ignore games. “It’s almost impossible to imagine a world where you have a foothold in entertainment without considering games,” he says. The edge.

New world is far from Amazon’s first foray into gaming. The company has explored competitive gaming and premium mobile titles and made some notable acquisitions. Most of these companies failed to gain traction including multiplayer shooter Crucible, which was canceled after a rough launch that saw it revert to a closed beta before ending completely. Same New world has had a rough time, with a handful of delays on the way to its upcoming launch on September 28.

Hartmann, who joined Amazon in 2018 after two decades at Take-Two, says he’s not surprised it took so long for the company to get into gaming. “Just because you’re a great sprinter doesn’t mean you’re a great mountaineer,” he says. “When you, as a business or as a human being, find a formula for success, you reproduce it again. And we know that one size doesn’t fit all. At first, they tried to replicate the formula that made Amazon great, but making games is so much more complicated than it looks.

This eventful history also puts a lot of pressure on New world. After years of testing, the MMO is on its way to becoming Amazon’s first real hit; a closed beta saw over a million players, and it was a fixture on Twitch during the same period.

“It should be our groundbreaking title for Amazon Games to put us on the map,” Hartmann said. “For me there is a lot of pride because we worked very hard and there was not always good press. I know it’s easy to say, “What’s the point of making games? But there are a lot of people who really care. And I hope this is the one that we can rally around and take Amazon Games to the next level and make ourselves more attractive for more people to join.

New world is developed by Amazon’s Orange County studio, and the company also has teams in San Diego (led by John Smedley, best known for his work on EverQuest) and, more recently, Montreal (led by Alexandre Parizeau, former general manager of Ubisoft Toronto). It’s unclear what either team is working on, although it’s safe to assume that these will be big online worlds.

“My personal goal is to create 2-3 AAA, live service games that capture millions of players and stay in the market for over 10 years,” Hartmann said of Amazon’s gaming ambitions. The company is also embarking on publishing partnerships with smaller teams; most recently, Amazon announced that it would be working with Glowmade, a studio made up of franchise veterans like Fable and Little big planet, on an unannounced project.

Despite the fact that Amazon also operates Luna and Twitch, the company does not currently make any exclusives for either platform. Amazon hinted that New world may come to Luna in the future, but it’s not a game designed to push people into cloud service. “We keep them in mind, but I don’t want to build games around them,” says Hartmann. “We obviously want to include features that serve them well, but my experience is that if you have a good game there are a lot of options for what you can do. So I put the big game first and then , later on, we can figure out how we can support each other. ”He adds that Amazon has given the games teams a lot of freedom to decide what to work on.“ When it comes to all the creative decisions, they stay completely. Apart from this.”

Which brings us back to the question of why Amazon cares about games in the first place. Luna exclusives may not be part of the roadmap, but for Hartmann a distant goal is to build a great new media franchise – and he thinks it can start with games, citing the success of the Witcher for example. (Although this franchise began as a series of novels, it achieved worldwide popularity thanks to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and, later, a live Netflix series.) This is where being a part of Amazon, with its various entertainment branches, could be a boon.

“Someday I think the right opportunity will present itself and we’ll find a place where we can partner with one of the other entertainment or creative groups in the business,” Hartmann said. “But it’s important that it’s fair. It never works when it’s forced.