Amazon Game Studios has finally revealed what it's been working on during a presentation at TwitchCon 2016 today, and it turns out the company has three major games currently in production – one of which is the third-person shooter hinted at back in June last year.
Amazon, which purchased Twitch in 2014 for $970m, is clearly eager to make the most of the streaming service. Amazon Game Studios VP Mike Frazzini said during his presentation that the projects arose from brainstorming sessions about "what would it mean to build games for Twitch". As the games demonstrate, they've all been designed with a spectator community in mind.
The most obvious bid for the esports market is Breakaway, a 4v4 "mythological sports brawler" hybrid. It's not quite Rocket League: the game is a class-based, hero-centric combat game first and foremost. You can see a match in action here, and registrations for the alpha are currently open.
Meanwhile, Crucible is a third-person shooter where 12 players fight (or shoot) for survival on an alien planet, with cooperation seemingly mandatory for survival. The game will also feature a 13th player who can influence the game – or grief the participants – in a role resembling a game master.
The most interesting of the three is New World, which is described as "a massively multiplayer open-ended sandbox game set in a living cursed land". Set in 17th century colonial America, the game isn't exactly historically accurate: according to the game's creative director speaking during the stream, the era's supernatural beliefs will be, uh, real in the game. The full presentation is here, or if you want to watch the entire Amazon Game Studios event, here you go.
