Amazon’s new plan for video games: James Bond and AI Snoop Dogg

Amazon’s gaming technique has by no means actually been clear. It’s been very energetic within the house: buying Twitch, launching its Luna cloud gaming service practically six years in the past, investing closely in MMOs throughout the peak of live-service wave, and gaining access to an enormous slate of franchises via Prime Video and the MGM Studios library. Late final 12 months, the corporate introduced a serious pivot, relaunching Luna with a deal with get together video games you may play with simply your cellphone as a controller — together with an AI-powered sport starring Snoop Dogg as a decide — and principally leaping ship on MMOs.

At the time, it appeared like a retreat, however Amazon says that isn’t the case. “The reality is nothing could be further from the truth, but we haven’t really got out and said that,” Jeff Gattis, the GM of Amazon Games, tells The Verge. And whereas the corporate says it has a brand new, extra targeted technique in place, its gaming efforts are nonetheless unfold throughout a number of totally different pillars.

Part of that newfound focus comes from a structural change, as the corporate now has what it believes is a less complicated method. “Luna is our gaming platform, Amazon Game Studios is our development and publishing platform,” Gattis says. He acknowledges that it’s not “entirely unlike” the method at Xbox, which has an Xbox platform division and Xbox Game Studios. And given Amazon’s push for cloud-streamed get together video games you may play on only a cellphone, Gattis is conscious of the similarities to Netflix’s technique, too — which has additionally had its twists and turns. Until just lately, Amazon has tried to go after “core” avid gamers, however Gattis says that a part of the market is “well-served” by issues like PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. Amazon isn’t abandoning that group, but it surely additionally sees a chance to enchantment to a extra informal viewers.

Gattis joined Amazon in March 2025 after a few years as an exec at Xbox. Gattis says he got here to Amazon as a result of he noticed a whole lot of alternative. “I, for one, fail to accept that Amazon, as one of the largest consumer entertainment companies in the world, can’t break into the number-one revenue segment of consumer entertainment,” he says. Since he joined, Amazon consolidated its three separate gaming teams — Prime Gaming, Amazon Game Studios, and Luna — into one group. “None of these groups were working with one another,” Gattis says.

For Luna, a choose batch of video games are included with an Amazon Prime subscription (together with its GameNite get together video games) and you may pay $9.99 monthly for Luna Premium, which has a much bigger number of titles. As for Amazon Game Studios, its greatest recognized video games within the works are the remake Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a brand new entry within the sequence. Both are presently set to launch in 2027. And Amazon’s involvement with video games extends to a live-action Tomb Raider present for Prime Video starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft.

Amazon’s guess on placing Tomb Raider in every single place — there are additionally a handful of titles obtainable via Luna — signifies the place the corporate sees issues going. “We really believe that this line between TV and video games is increasingly coming together” such that “I think every major IP is going to have to have a video game story” as a part of its go-to-market technique, Gattis says. He additionally factors to Amazon’s rights offers with sports activities leagues just like the NBA and the NFL, saying there are “all kinds” of “companion-type games” that it could possibly make.

Now that Amazon has artistic management over James Bond, that looks as if one other apparent franchise for the corporate to construct extra video games round, particularly after the success of IO Interactive’s recently-released 007 First Light. IO Interactive self-published First Light due to a deal labored out earlier than Amazon took over the franchise, although Amazon has a “stake in the game” and the corporate is speaking with IO about when to convey it to Luna, based on Gattis.

“That is exhibit A of going to Prime Video, seeing the Bond films, playing the video game, buying merchandise on [Amazon].com,” Gattis says. Amazon has the rights to “all future Bond titles” and that “I think you can expect [the next Bond game to be] an Amazon Game Studios-published game,” Gattis says. He received’t affirm but whether or not IO would be the developer of any potential sequel. “As the dust settles on this one, we’ll start to pop our heads up and figure out, okay, what does [the next Bond game] look like? Who’s the right developer for it? What’s the right storyline? All those things.”

Right now, Amazon has 10 to fifteen video games in improvement, based on Gattis, who says that “probably 33 to 40 percent” are AAA titles. But these big-budget video games aren’t mandatory for the brand new viewers Amazon is after with its new Luna video games. The Snoop Dogg sport got here collectively in “under a year,” Gattis says. Amazon can be “big believers” in generative AI each for AI-powered video games just like the Snoop Dogg title but additionally the way it can assist with improvement extra broadly. “To be clear, these are human-made games, but using AI as tools,” he says. “We haven’t cut any people because of AI. We’re just using it to try to accelerate and try to make different types of games.” (Crystal Dynamics, which is creating the Tomb Raider reboot, has admitted that it used “AI-assisted tools” throughout improvement.)

Scale is on no account a assure of success. Netflix has the largest subscription enterprise in streaming however hasn’t made a lot of a dent in video games. And although Amazon appears extra targeted than earlier than, it nonetheless appears to be attempting a bunch of various issues to see what sticks, and that’s going to take time to play out. Gattis, nonetheless, is assured in Amazon’s method. “Don’t sleep on Amazon in this space.”