Amazon has announced it’s founding a new studio in its games division based in Montreal, adding a fourth studio to its stable of developers based in Seattle, San Diego, and Orange County.
Founding members include Head of Production Luc Bouchard, Creative Director Xavier Marquis, Head of Product Alexandre Remy, and Content Director Romain Rimokh, all of whom worked on Rainbow Six Siege at Ubisoft. According to Amazon’s announcement, the team will be working on AAA-scale games, but that’s really about all that’s said outright at this point. Based on the job listings Amazon has put up, the Montreal team seems to be working on a game with a focus on online multiplayer. The studio is hiring for a Principal Architect position to (translated from French) “participate in the creation of a AAA multi-player online game based on a new infrastructure platform.”
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Amazon Game Studios first became a thing in 2012, and since then has released games mostly through the Amazon Appstore. However, its AAA-style games have been where it’s had the most struggle, with several games such as Breakaway being cancelled before they ever made it out the door. Amazon has also worked in publishing, such as last year’s multiplayer shooter Crucible, which was developed by Relentless Studios. The game launched in May to middling reception, and was then reverted to beta status as the team sought to address feedback. However, the game was instead cancelled in November.
New World, an MMORPG from the Orange County branch of Amazon Game Studios, is currently scheduled to launch on August 31, after a delay from its originally projected May release date.
Beyond its own studios, Amazon is also working on a video game streaming service called Luna (not to be confused with the K-Pop Group LOONA).
