While it is undeniably one of the largest and most successful companies in the entire world,Amazonstill hasn’t quite managed to get a foothold in the games industry, despite its own studio Amazon Games working on making games since 2012. The company clearly has no intentions of giving up, though, withAmazon’s new CEOannouncing he was committed to the gaming division and now Amazon Games has established a new studio in Montreal, Canada, joining the ones already operating in Seattle, Orange County, and San Diego.
Amazonstates that this new studio will focus on creating original AAA games and is in the process of hiring staff, with various roles opening. In terms of current staff, though, the studio already has quite the pedigree as the founders consist of industry veterans Luc Bouchard (head of production), Xavier Marquis (creative director), Alexandre Remy (head of product), and Romain Rimokh (content director). For anyone unfamiliar with those names, they all previously worked on Ubisoft’sRainbow Six Siege.
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The studio has even begun working on its first project. Details are incredibly scarce, unsurprisingly, with it only being described as an online multiplayer title based on a new IP, which makes sense considering the current staff’s experience withRainbow Six Siege. The announcement also takes the time to remind everyone that Amazon’s open-world MMONew Worldis releasing this August (after it was delayed) and that it has several other unannounced projects in development.
While the company is certainly dedicated to making games, its track record so far makes it hard for some to have any faith in its line-up of titles. Since the studio’s establishment in 2012, most of the games it has released were only available on the Amazon Appstore or mobile devices and never achieved any sort of notoriety. Its only console game release was a tie-in toThe Grand Tour, which has since been delisted for digital platforms, and its multiplayer shooterCruciblebarely lasted over half a year before being shut down, joining several other canceled games likeBreakawayand others that weren’t even announced.
Back in January, multiple employees, both current and former, spoke with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier about how Amazon was approaching game development. And, if they are to be believed, it’snothing short of disastrous, with the report painting a picture of a company that has no idea what it’s doing and seems to believe that it can guarantee success just by spending loads of money.
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