Amazon is looking to add game designers to its development team, which is currently developing a new PC game. Kim Swift, the company’s senior designer, posted a recruitment ad on LinkedIn which stated that Amazon Game Studios is seeking top developers for “a ambitious new PC game project using the latest technology.”
Amazon’s development team features notable developers
The job ad was posted by Swift on May 26, however, it only gained widespread attention after Gamasutra published the news in an Amazon-sponsored note on June 5.
“We want people that are driven to make the best games in the industry. We’re looking to take interesting risks, and invent!” the job posting read.
Swift informed readers that the development team in Seattle, which is working on the new project, has contributed to a number of well-known games, such as Half Life 2, Left for Dead, Dota 2, World of Warcraft, Halo, Infamous, Shadows of Mordor, The Last of U.S., etc. Moreover, Swift, who was previously employed at Valve and Airtight Games, has herself worked on games like Portal and BioShock. The team also features Clint Hocking, designer of Far Cry and Splinter Cell.
Amazon making efforts to expand into PC games
The recent announcement marks the company’s attempt to expand in the PC game development arena. Until now, Amazon has allied with some famous game studios as a pseudo-publisher of mobile games. One of the latest horror games, Til Morning’s Light, is an example of such an association and has been rated as an outstanding mobile game. This game was more ambitious than most smartphone games, and it seems that Amazon is looking to instill the same kind of effort in its first PC game.
At the same time, the company reportedly burned a lot of cash on licensing the CryEngine, which has been used to make high-quality PC games, for instance, Crysis 3. In August of last year, the retailer bought game streaming service Twitch for $970 million. Last year, the retailer acquired gaming company Double Helix which is known for developing games such as Killer Instinct. Also last year, the company launched its set-top box, the Fire TV, which allows users to play games on their TVs, and also a $40 controller for the console.
Amazon notes that developers will be using Twitch, AWS Cloud and other technical innovations to “radically evolve gameplay.” Moreover, Amazon opined that games are much more capable of uniting players. Moving forward, the company expects to develop “some of the future’s most influential voices in media and art.”
