Amazon game streaming service

[BO7H B4RRELS 2,447]

https://bgr.com/2019/01/10/amazon-video-game-streaming-service-coming/

 

Amazon reportedly wants to launch a streaming service for video games next year.

Andy Meek  @aemeek
January 10th, 2019 at 8:36 PM
 

Amazon has serious ambitions to do more around video games, with a plan to expand in a big way its existing identity as a retailer of titles as well as the owner of Twitch, the most prominent game live streaming service in the world.

 

That’s according to a new report via The Information, the Internet retail giant is joining the growing list of companies that want to build what’s essentially a Netflix for video games. Microsoft and Google are likewise interested in this, and what Amazon also wants to develop is a version of what Sony also has via PlayStation Now — a way to stream games instead of customers having to fork over the money to buy and download them.

 

Talks have already begun between Amazon and game publishers for this streaming outlet that, at the earliest, would be live sometime next year. And it should go without saying, services like this coming to fruition would represent a huge transformation of the business model supporting the video game industry, as the new report notes. “Streaming services represent a potentially significant shift in the games business by, in some cases, eliminating the need for players to purchase expensive hardware, such as consoles or PCs, to run the most elaborate titles,” according to The Information. “Instead, the games run on powerful computers inside data centers, allowing people to play them on devices with less processing muscle, including smartphones, tablets, and smart televisions.”

 

Amazon hasn’t announced any such plans so far or even confirmed the existence of such plans. Reporters, however, have spotted job listings relevant to this effort, such as this one for a Lead Cross-Platform Game Engineer. “This is a rare opportunity,” the listing reads, “to take a technical leadership role to shape the foundation of an unannounced AAA games business.”

 

Amazon, of course, already has the cloud computing capacity necessary for a service like this thanks to Amazon Web Services. As we already noted, it also won’t be alone in this effort. Microsoft, for example, unveiled its video game streaming service Project xCloud back in October, touting it as bringing games to devices including PCs and consoles. Public trials of that system are supposed to kick off this year.

 

[tronic44 3,628]

This could be massive for them, but I wonder how it’ll fair in this country where our internet is below average at best. 

 

I do think that people like having a libraryof games on a shelf, I do anyway, although the newer generation may be different. 

[J4MES OX4D 9,779]

Jeez, they'll be streaming food next!

 

I prefer having games owned physically or at least have the licence bound to an online account. Streaming is unreliable, expensive and pretty needless in all honesty. I get that companies want to be trendy and all that shit but streaming games in their entirety is stupid.  

[GazzaGarratt 10,867]

On 1/12/2019 at 11:02 AM, tronic44 said:

This could be massive for them, but I wonder how it’ll fair in this country where our internet is below average at best. 

 

I do think that people like having a libraryof games on a shelf, I do anyway, although the newer generation may be different. 

The key in this is the newer generation. They really don't care to own things, they'd rather rent pretty much everything in life, as the perception is that it's 'cheaper'. I think having the odd rental service makes sense for some families but I don't see the value in it personally unless you have money to burn.

 

I really like Amazon but i'm finding the way they do their services the costs are pretty hidden away when it looks like you just buy Prime and get access to a multitude of products. You really don't.

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

17 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

The key in this is the newer generation. They really don't care to own things, they'd rather rent pretty much everything in life, as the perception is that it's 'cheaper'. I think having the odd rental service makes sense for some families but I don't see the value in it personally unless you have money to burn.

 

I really like Amazon but i'm finding the way they do their services the costs are pretty hidden away when it looks like you just buy Prime and get access to a multitude of products. You really don't.

 

Prime is losing its value year after year.