Amazon Is Quietly Plotting to Take Over the Video Game Market
Steam may not be dominant for long
In 2018, Epic Games, the company behind cultural megahit Fortnite, launched a digital game store to compete with Steam, Valve’s overwhelmingly dominant platform. It was the first major challenge to Steam’s PC dominance in 15 years. But while Epic and Steam duel for control of a massive market, Amazon is quietly making moves that could overtake them both.
For years, Amazon has sold PC games, just as it sells console games, but it hasn’t drawn much attention to that fact. Often, they are sold with a code that allows buyers to activate the product on Steam. As a result, price-savvy customers could use tools like IsThereAnyDeal to find out if a game is cheaper on Amazon, buy it there, and then keep launching games through their unified Steam library.
The gaming industry has rapidly grown into one of the dominant entertainment industries on the planet, with video game revenue surpassing theatrical box office returns for the first time in 2018. So while Amazon could be content to siphon off a few sales here and there while letting Steam maintain its market position, it’s more likely that the company sees a much bigger opportunity to insert itself into the video game market.
Which is why it was no surprise when Amazon announced earlier this month that it’s developing its own video games, as well as a game streaming platform to play them on. Currently code-named Project Tempo and set to release in May 2020, the new service would allow players to buy and run Amazon-developed games on Amazon-owned servers, and broadcast their play through the Amazon-owned Twitch service.
All the pieces are in place for Amazon to launch a proper Steam competitor — a powerful merchant system, an engaging gaming service, game studios, and even a platform to run them on — but the company has been exceedingly careful not to show its cards just yet.
The site’s video games landing page features tabs for the PS4, Xbox, Switch, and PC. Click on any of the console tabs and you’ll be taken to a shopping page for games on those consoles. Click the PC tab and you’ll only find gaming hardware. If you search for a specific game on Amazon, the top results will be for console…
