With each passing day, Amazon becomes more and more of a video game company.
Two years ago that trip into the world of pixels and cell shaders took the world’s largest retailer into the game development space with a game called Breakaway, and last year’s big play included the acquisition of game streaming juggernaut Twitch.
Today Amazon announced its next big leap in video games: competitive gaming – specifically, a new competitive gaming service called GameOn.
GameOn will integrate with some mobile titles you already know and play to offer you real-world rewards from the Amazon Store. (Think eSports rewards but for the people who can only invest a few hours in a game each week rather than a few dozen.)
Amazon’s GameOn currently supports leaderboards, leagues and multi-round competitions and, for games with an engaged community, can also enable players and streamers to create their own user-generated competitions and invite participants to join in on the competition.
You get a prize, you get a prize
Some studios that have already signed onto the service include nWay, Game Insight and Millennial Esports’ Eden Games, with more en route.
When it goes into full effect, Amazon’s GameOn service will be great for gamers – as it rewards you with goods from Amazon for the games you’re already playing – but it does require that developers sign on with the service, a potentially costly endeavor as Amazon plans on charging $0.003 per play.
Amazon has not yet announced what prizes it will make available to gamers who participate in these tournaments but, considering the breadth of the Amazon Store, it’s certainly not lacking in the prize department.
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