Amazon is expected to announce its own game streaming offering next year -- and potentially launch it by Christmas.
That's according to two sources familiar with the company's plans, who spoke to CNET as part of the site's round-up of streaming strategies from the big players, including Google, Sony and Microsoft.
Rumours first emerged that Amazon was working on a streaming service earlier this year, and CNET reports it's now gearing up for an announcement. The company has also been reportedly hiring talent from major games firms, including Microsoft.
Meanwhile, job listings for a "new initiative" within the Amazon Web Services team are believed to be for the streaming service. One of these suggested that Amazon will integrate the service into Twitch as well as some of its other businesses. Google has plans for similar integration between Stadia and YouTube.
Speaking to the site, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter predicted the service launch by the end of the year, adding, "The odds of them letting the Scarlett and PS5 launch without Amazon being there is zero."
Amazon has been exploring multiple avenues into the games industry over the past decade, with mixed results. Its internal Amazon Games Studios has produced very few titles to date -- mostly mobile games for the Amazon Appstore, plus a PS4 and Xbox One driving game based on The Grand Tour -- and even suffered layoffs earlier this year. Meanwhile, its Lumberyard engine has struggled to find many developers to build games with it.
Google launched its own streaming service Stadia earlier this week, having announced back at GDC 2019 in March.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...vice-next-year