Amazon launches its first big-budget game, a shooter called Crucible
Amazon has ramped up its expansion into the games industry with Wednesday's release of Crucible.
The free-to-play shooter – which incorporates elements similar to popular games like Activision Blizzard's Overwatch, Epic Games' Fortnite and Riot Games' League of Legends -- is Amazon's first big-budget game since Amazon Game Studios, the company's gaming branch, was created in 2012. With Crucible, Amazon Game Studios has finally deviated away from the tablet-based games it produced for years to deliver one of the PC titles initially announced in 2016.
Gaming is not a cornerstone of Amazon's business. Live-streaming platform Twitch, which Amazon acquired in 2014 for $970 million, is the company's only big foothold in the gaming space.
But Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter speculates that the company is looking to enter games distribution "in the same way that they got into books and music." Crucible could be an early step towards achieving that goal.
"If they go further into games, it makes sense that they will offer a streaming service, and they probably want 'exclusive' games for that service," he wrote to CNBC.
