Amazon Introduces GameOn

Amazon has recently presented a new cross-platform, competitive gaming service for game developers called GameOn. The platform allows users to integrate competitions into their games and give away real-world prizes fulfilled with the help of the online retailer, so there are now more possibilities to attract amateur players.

GameOn now supports leaderboards, leagues, and multi-round competitions. It also lets studios to generate custom events (local and regional competitions, for example). The platform can also deal with player-generated tournaments.

“Game developers have consistently told us they are looking for ways to increase player engagement and retention,” stated Amazon Competitive Gaming director Marja Koopmans. “We built Amazon GameOn to give developers simple, yet powerful tools to foster community through competitive gameplay.”

Millennial Esports’ Eden Games is using GameOn when scaling the size of the competitions of its racing game Gear.Club and the studio describes GameOn as a great timesaver. “GameOn has made it easy for us to add leaderboards and tournaments in-game,” stated Eden Games chief marketing officer Pascal Clarysse. “GameOn saved us months of development and a whole lot of maintenance and logistical overhead in the long run.”

GameOn is said to be based on Amazon Web Services (AWS), a secure cloud services platform that offers users database storage, Twitch integration, content delivery, and other possibilities. It is worth noting that AWS is used by more than 90% of the world’s biggest game companies.

Are you willing to try the new platform? You can use its APIs for free until May 1st. Then, the first 35,000 players per month are free for a limited time. After that, studios will have to pay $0.003 per play.