It seems as though Amazon has decided to takes it’s first real step into the gaming world. Amazon has recently acquired GameSparks, a company in the UK that builds backend tools for developers behind popular game franchises such as the Assassin’s Creed series and Final Fantasy. Amazon and has always been on good terms with GameSparks ever since it’s launch in 2013.
GameSparks builds tools as well as AWS infrastructure for companies such as Ubisfoft, Square Enix, EA Games, and more, in order to make it easier for their developers to take their games into the market. GameSpark has provided game developers with services that allow them to use server base functions on games as wee, such as scoreboards, leaderboards, and chat rooms, the company also had a part in creating different servers for certain video games so gamers wouldn’t have to all crowd into a single server when playing, thus preventing the game from freezing, lagging, or having errors.
The company itself and their methods have even become the topic of a case study on Amazon’s Web Services page, “The technical leadership at GameSparks had been pioneer users of cloud providers including AWS for years. From inception, they believed that the cloud was the best option to launch the platform due to its speed, low cost, breadth of features, and security.” The full details of the deal between Amazon and GameSparks have not been released to the public as of yet, but back in February Amazon announced their plans to sell games directly on Twitch which was bought by Amazon for $1 billion in 2014. Reports state that Amazon has been putting together a game developing team ever since it’s acquisition of the company and even announced its first games would be deeply integrated with Twitch.
Apparently one of the games will even allow users to wager loyalty points, which can be exchanged for in-game rewards. Amazon is no stranger to dabbling in other franchises besides shipping, ever since Amazon’s launch in 1995 the company has been growing and acquiring and partnering with more and more small businesses such as Twitch, Audible, IMDb and more. Amazon’s reading materials are some of Amazon’s most popular accessories, such as the Kindle Fire and by owning the company Audible the largest producer and retailer of audio books in the United States, Amazon is able to market their Kindle Fire since the tablet is able to listen to audiobooks through the tablet. With GameSpark now under Amazon’s ownership gamers can expect to see new and interesting games from the popular company.
Featured Image via Flickr/Canonicalized
