It can be pretty easy to assume that the strategy of Amazon Games is to throw handfuls of anything at the wall to see what sticks, but according to a Variety interview with the division’s vice president Christoph Hartmann, there is indeed a strategy that’s focused on top-tier games and taking time to release them.
“As you know, it takes such a long time to make games. Now, it’s five years, if not longer. And the approach we took at Amazon is the long game. Rather than going out on a buying frenzy and just collect studios — and you know how it is, it sometimes works out, but no one talks about the studio acquisitions which didn’t work out, but there’s actually far more than the ones which worked out — we said, let’s focus on internal and selective external games.”
Hartmann goes on to point to out how Amazon has eight games currently in development, though he remains tight-lipped on details, especially in regards to the company’s Lord of the Rings title, though he also does claim that it’s “not too far away.”
Most of this strategy circles back to a focus on releasing AAA-quality titles and giving games space to develop and launch at the right time. He points out the New World: Aeternum launch as an example, which would possibly go against a juggernaut like GTA VI but also is “a very unique game coming to console” that’s not comparable to other releases.
Hartmann additionally talks up Throne & Liberty, calling it “a huge, huge game” and another feather in the company’s cap in terms of MMO releases.
“[W]e started off saying, OK, so what games should we do? I said, when you look at the different genres, MMO is actually a pretty underserved genre. So we went strategically into MMO’s when there was an opportunity and NCsoft came to us and said, hey, if you want to work together, after the success you have seen of us working together with Smilegate — that really falls into our strategy.”
Finally of note is Hartmann’s discussion about monetization strategies for Amazon-published games. “What’s really important is the spirit we live in […] is that monetization is always fair and it feels you get real value,” he says. “The most important thing for me is to make it fair. I think fair and perceived value are the two most important things. People spend a lot of money for things they like, so it’s really our job to deliver the quality and what people like.”
