Amazon Opens New Game Studio Led by EverQuest Creator

Amazon has been making quite a few headlines lately. Between its new anime streaming service, Strike, its physical shop in Seattle, and drone delivery, Amazon is quickly becoming a titan in online services. And they aren’t done yet. They have announced that they will now be developing games with the creator of EverQuest, John Smedley, at the helm.

There will be Amazon Game Studios set up in Orange County, California, Seattle Washington, and Smedley will be leading the location located in San Diego. While they haven’t released a whole lot of information, Amazon has released a few details about some of the games they are working on. Open World is an open world adventure game, Breakaway is a sports brawler, and last but not least, Crucible seems to be a sci-fi survival horror game. As of right now, it looks like all of the titles will release on PC.

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The ex-president of Sony Online Entertainment and Daybreak Game Company will be leading a gaming project for Amazon that will use the “power of the AWS Cloud and Twitch to connect players around the globe in a thrilling new game world.” It looks like things are looking up for John Smedley after his last gaming experience, Hero’s Song didn’t make it to the public. However, Smedley is the king of MMO’s and there isn’t a massive multiplayer online experience that doesn’t carry a bit of inspiration from his design. While the project is still in its early days, I’m sure we can expect nothing less than perfection from the team itself!

AGS haven’t released any information on release dates on any of their titles yet, but they seem to have some interesting features. Breakaway is a mythical brawler that is built to allow Twitch streamers to interact with their audiences through Stream+. Obviously, Amazon is making the most out of their new partnership with Twitch.