Cloud gaming is becoming a new battleground for tech companies, and Amazon could be one of the big players.
Google’s cloud-based gaming service, Stadia, launched on November 19th but it didn’t go smoothly, with pre-orders arriving late and many of the games simply not running at the true 4K resolution that was promised as standard.
Google took the brunt of the blame, while the developers who failed to design ports to support Google’s specifications have pretty much gone into hiding.
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But we’re already hearing about Amazon’s rumoured entry into the space, and the multinational tech company could set the standard for consoles to follow.
Leaked details
Job listings have given us some evidence that Amazon has a cloud gaming service on the way.
Amazon could be at the forefront of cloud-gaming by this time next year
The company has been searching for a “new Gaming Initiative” to add to its Amazon Web Services team that is involved with the new gaming service.
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Though the listing doesn’t reveal any details about what the service might look like, it does contain some pretty bold statements about Amazon’s gaming ambitions.
But why?
Though you may not think of Amazon as a gaming company, it makes sense that it wants to make a cloud gaming service as it understands the massive potential for such a service.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given Amazon a head start on the competition
AWS already powers much of the internet (including massive games, such as Fortnite), which means Amazon already has a great amount of infrastructure and streaming ‘know-how’ at its disposal.
This could be used to try to make a reliable cloud gaming service.
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Amazon also owns Twitch, an incredibly popular live-streaming service, which probably gives Amazon a lot of intel about the types of games people might spend hours playing every single day.
Amazon allegedly plans to integrate the service with Twitch, which sounds similar to Google’s eventual plans for integrating Stadia and YouTube.
Who else?
Amazon and Google aren’t the only companies making a serious run at cloud gaming, of course.
With the PlayStation 5 rumoured to launch in November 2020, where will a cloud-based service fit into Sony's workload?
An early player in cloud-based gaming Gaikai was acquired by Sony to help it power its PlayStation Now service, and Nvidia has been testing GeForce Now for years.
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But now, with more companies jumping into the fray every day, there soon could be a dizzying array of choices to pick from.
For more information on Amazon's cloud-based gaming service, bookmark this piece and listen out for our weekly updates.