Former SOE and Daybreak boss John Smedley has been a fixture at Amazon Game Studios for the last few years, working on at least one unannounced game that we know of. This week, he tweeted that he’s hiring again for the studio in San Diego, though apparently remote work is on the table too. And while most of the positions are for engineers and QA for games we already have an inkling about, there are some new nuggets in there, including the note that “Amazon is also working on unannounced titles for PC, console and mobile platforms.”
Most intriguingly for us, the narrative designer position appears to reveal that the company is working on another MMO that isn’t New World or the upcoming new Lord of the Rings MMO or even Lost Ark.
“This designer will work with our Creative Director to tell gripping tales of a brand new scifi world, its history, and its peoples; building world settings, lore, in-game stories, and cinematics for Amazon’s new massively multiplayer game.”
The senior level designer position likewise refers to a “brand-new world for an unannounced massively multiplayer game.”
Is it an MMORPG? We’re not sure – but the “qualifications” section asks for “experience creating stories for massively multiplayer role playing games,” so it doesn’t entirely sound like the shooter Smed’s team was on before – but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.
Good. We need something to stir this beast of a genre from its slumber.
Woohoo, Star Wars Galaxies II confirmed ;-)
Starting to get Spaceballs vibes somehow with this… o.O
Might as well do one set in the Expanse universe since they’re making the show now, plenty of opportunities for expansion and DLCs with all the scattered Asteroid colonies, and the eventual Stargate to other inhabitable worlds.
They should probably finish their first one. Unless their prepping now for the massive new world failure. Instead of doubling down on new world, their already making a new mmorpg. I’m calling the red flag now. Seems they will follow Asian mmorpg practices and pump out sub par experiences that are briefly lived. Yikes.
AGS isn’t one group of game devs. The people who make New World aren’t the people who make Crucible, nor are they the people making Lord of the Rings, or the people making the game Smedley’s been working on for a few years now.
So a repeat of EQ Next…IN SPACE?!?!?
A known shrewd company introducing itself to one of the most heavily monetized slices of the gaming market.
Smedley really is in his element here.
Side discussion: Why is Smed being cagey about which game he’s working on? Is he concerned about a repeat of what happened when he was harassed by Lizard Squad? (Or maybe his game just hasn’t been announced yet.)
Every time I see the word Daybreak…it makes me cringe and I immediately go negative. Immediately.
Every time I see “Daybreak” I think “Sunset” as that seems to be what they do best to games….
Weird. I have the exact opposite reaction, supported by my memories of two full decades of almost uninterrupted entertainment. And counting.
You can’t interrupt maintenance mode :^)
Smedley left daybreak 6 months after they became daybreak, and that was 5 years ago. Not really fair to blame daybreak’s doings on Smedley.
I don’t recall blaming Smedley for anything really. I was talking about Daybreak in general.
Sure sure. And I could say that I never actually accused you of blaming Smedley.
Amazon Director, “So here is the plan, release as many games as we can and at least ONE of them will be successful!”
They are gonna eventually run out of monkeys
The fact that they’re working so hard to get these games right, willing to delay release or go back into testing post-release, as well as how much they value player feedback, to me is a good thing. This is exactly what we want from developers is it not?
It is, but i’m not so sure they’re doing that without crunching the everliving crap out of their employees.