Amazon is already one of the biggest players in game livestreaming thanks to its acquisition of Twitch in 2014.

But according to the New York Times, Amazon eventually plans to launch a service that lets you stream games over the internet rather than just watching someone else play in real-time.

The move… isn’t all that surprising.

Game streaming has been around for over a decade, but it’s really starting to take off now that key players including Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA have gotten in on the action.

The idea is that instead of buying an expensive console or gaming PC, you can stream games over the internet and play them on hardware you may already have such as a smart TV, basic computer, or even a smartphone or tablet.

Different companies have taken different approaches — some offer a subscription model that lets you play a set of games for a monthly fee. Others let you pay a one-time fee to “buy” a game that’s then available to play anywhere. And some let you stream games you may already have purchased.

All have to contend with latency/lag issues that are inherent to internet streaming — so generally speaking all of the services announced to date suggest you’re probably going to want a reasonably fast internet connection before signing up.

Anyway, back to Amazon — the New York Times reports that the company is developing its own cloud gaming effort under the code-name “Project Tempo,” and that it will follow the lead of similar services by using servers to do the heavy lifting so that gamers can play on “cheaper devices.”

The service was originally scheduled to launch sometime this year, but the coronavirus pandemic has caused development to slow down, which means that Project Tempo might not be ready to launch until 2021.

There’s no word on what, if anything, will set it apart from competing services. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon incorporated Twitch in some way.

Amazon is also planning to launch two high-profile games developed in-house next month, including a sci-fi shooter called Crucible, and an MMO game called New World.

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5 replies on “Amazon is developing a game streaming platform (code-named Project Tempo)”

  1. I’m really annoyed by all of the developers that bailed on GeForce Now. That service seemed like the most solid of the current offerings. Rather than marketing to the consumer, maybe these services should market to the game developers instead. Rather than having consumers log into Stadia or GeForce Now, users would instead visit the Blizzard website to play “[Game of the Minute] hosted by Stadia!” That way developers would still have total control over their IP. Whether they choose to charge users something additional for online play is up to the developer. The developer would be Stadia’s customer rather than the end user.

    Edited to add that Blizzard was only used as an example. Insert “Bethesda” or “Activision” or whoever you prefer . . .

  2. Under the sheer amount of pressure that these megacorps are/are going to put out via advertising, it’s going to be really hard to convince most people that having a desktop is not the stupid way to play video games.
    There isn’t going to appear to be a smart way for a while until a couple of these services die off with the rest soaking up the customers. Although in reality, there’s not and never was a smart way to play video games, except to be one of the first of the charismatic streamers. There’s not really a smart way to do anything. The world is so messed up that it’s not even smart to so much as be alive.
    I will reiterate what I said earlier, if you want to have a desktop and not feel ashamed of yourself after one of the coming flamewars, you need to be hosting web services on it.

      1. i have no idea what he is trying to say. All I can say is amazon sells a lot of streaming video stics and tablets. having a platform to stream games ot these devices only makes sense.

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