Following rumors of Amazon working on its own game streaming service, it's been reported that the debut is likely to be pushed back to 2021 because of the coronavirus.
The cloud service is said to be referred to as Project Tempo internally and is meant to compete with Google's Stadia, Microsoft's Project Cloud and Nvidia's GeForce Now. However, the current pandemic could force the retail giants to push the release back to next year.
That is according to the New York Times, who cites external sources on the above.
"Game executives and analysts have suspected that Amazon was working on its own cloud gaming service," the Times' report reads. "People close to Project Tempo said that the company had hoped to introduce an early version this year but that it could slip into 2021 amid coronavirus disruptions."
Project Tempo is hardly Amazon's first foray into gaming. The company is understood to have invested "hundreds of millions of dollars" on that front. Their first original IP is poised to be introduced in the form of multiplayer shooter Crucible similar to League of Legends and Dota 2.
Amazon Game Studios is also working on an MMO called New World, as well as a Lord of the Rings MMO and another unnamed project being led by former Sony Online Entertainment chief John Smedley. New World is set to debut in May, as is Crucible. The latter was originally scheduled for a March 31 launch but was pushed back after travel restrictions threw a spoke in the company's marketing plan. The April 14 announcement that followed has also been trashed and it's now expected to release sometime next month.
The report also claims Amazon is working on a new casual game, set to drop this summer, which streamers will be able to play with their viewers on Twitch.
"The big picture is about trying to take the best of Amazon and bringing it into games," Amazon's vice president for games services and studios Mike Frazzini tells the Times. "We have been working for a while, but it takes a long time to make games, and we're bringing a lot of Amazon practices to making games."
Source: New York Times