Amazon is likely designing its own cloud game streaming service

[William Gayde]

Forward-looking: In theory game streaming would bring access to modern game titles to almost everyone and would remove the need for an expensive gaming computer or console. However, it is heavily dependent on internet connection quality. Amazon is arguably one of the best positioned companies to tackle these challenges though.

One of the barriers to modern gaming is the access to high performance hardware. If you want to play today's hottest games, you need a gaming computer or console. Now it looks like Amazon wants to join the leagues of those challenging that notion by launching their very own game streaming service, according to sources from The Information.

Instead of buying a game and playing it on your own hardware, the service would likely integrate with a Fire TV to bring the game to you. The game files would be stored on Amazon's servers and rendering would also take place on Amazon's data center hardware. You would send the inputs from your controller and the service would stream back the resulting gameplay.

Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Sony have already announced plans for similar platforms but they haven't gained much traction so far as the gameplay experience is entirely dependent on your internet connection. Amazon is the undisputed king of cloud computing and certainly has the infrastructure and data centers to support it.

Amazon has already experimented with hybrid platforms where some elements are rendered locally and others are rendered remotely. The Verge also dug up some interesting job postings on Amazon's careers page. This includes two engineers for "Cloud Games" and another for "Lead Cross Platform Game Engineer." The latter is perhaps the most telling since the job description describes the role as including working "to shape the foundation of an unannounced AAA games business." Another posting is for an AI engineer who will develop a "never before seen kind of game" with the help of cloud experts.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/78219-amazon-likely-designing-own-cloud-game-streaming-service.html

 

[psycros]

The thing is, unless a streaming provider can get all those console exclusives lined up this will only appeal to lower income PC gamers. Granted, that's a big market, but those who can't afford a potent gaming machine typically can't afford to buy or rent many games, either. Amazon would be smarter to just add a storefront like Steam and integrate it with Twitch and Alexa. Once everyone can afford low-latency gigabit Internet they can work on game streaming. You still get way too much buffering on Prime videos and gaming will be even more demanding.

 

[Uncle Al]

If Amazon treats this like their grocery or market service it will be over priced and under powered catering only to those too lazy to do anything else. it's sad because they once captured lightning in a bottle, but like so many others, let it slip away .....

 

[OcelotRex]

Once everyone can afford low-latency gigabit Internet they can work on game streaming. You still get way too much buffering on Prime videos and gaming will be even more demanding.

I played 30+ hours on Google's Project Stream Beta. Assassin's Creed Odyssey played extremely well on my 200Mbps/20Mbps DL/UL Spectrum connection. It was even on my wireless router, not a wired connection.

There were some issues with consistency of the game-play such as pauses in the stream or a quick downgrade in quality. Overall it was a positive experience to play a AAA title on a laptop with a core i5 processor and no dedicated GPU at 30fps.

With the right resources and with the right games it works today.

 

[ckm88]

They can redesign their Prime shipping date promises.

 

[DangerDiscoPS]

Once everyone can afford low-latency gigabit Internet they can work on game streaming. You still get way too much buffering on Prime videos and gaming will be even more demanding.

I played 30+ hours on Google's Project Stream Beta. Assassin's Creed Odyssey played extremely well on my 200Mbps/20Mbps DL/UL Spectrum connection. It was even on my wireless router, not a wired connection.

There were some issues with consistency of the game-play such as pauses in the stream or a quick downgrade in quality. Overall it was a positive experience to play a AAA title on a laptop with a core i5 processor and no dedicated GPU at 30fps.

With the right resources and with the right games it works today.

Right now all cloud streaming experiences are about the distance to the data centre your using. Very little is to do with the raw power you have in your home as it's its essentially video streaming from a rig 'in the cloud'. As long as your near a data centre, that Google, Amazon or Sony are using then you'll have a great time. Sadly it will be a postcode(or zipcode) lottery and that business model will be difficult to scale.

 

[OcelotRex]

Right now all cloud streaming experiences are about the distance to the data centre your using. Very little is to do with the raw power you have in your home as it's its essentially video streaming from a rig 'in the cloud'. As long as your near a data centre, that Google, Amazon or Sony are using then you'll have a great time. Sadly it will be a postcode(or zipcode) lottery and that business model will be difficult to scale.

Very true. I live about 12 miles from ATL with better than average service so I could just be lucky.