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Report: Amazon set to roll out games streaming service in 2020

Report: Amazon set to roll out games streaming service in 2020

It would seem that retail and internet giant Amazon is looking to dive into the emerging games streaming market.

That's according to CNET, which reports that the firm is preparing to announce its plans in the sector in addition to hiring talent from the games industry from Microsoft. There would also be integrations with Twitch, similar to how YouTube works with Google's Stadia streaming platform.

Job listings mentioning a "new initiative" for Amazon Web Services have also appeared. This would be the internet backbone that powers said streaming service were this to be true.

This follows Google rolling out its Stadia tech earlier this week - albeit in a rather lacklustre form -  while Microsoft expanded the number of games available in its tests for its own streaming platform Project xCloud.

Amazon has long been involved in the games industry but hasn't seen a huge deal of success. Its own game developers haven't really released much, despite a huge hiring wave at one point.

But if there's one area where Amazon is no slouch it is its Web Services division, which is the single biggest cloud tech venture in the world and is estimated to be bigger than its four next biggest competitors combined.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.