The tech giant Amazon has recently announced the Amazon GameOn. According to the tech firm, its new service provides developers the necessary software tools to boost engagement, increase the number of players, and more effectively monetize their work. One of the software tools that the company offers is the GameOn console, which enables game developers, community managers, and marketing staff to organize and monitor leaderboards, league, and multi-round competitions. Through the GameOn console, the staff can also choose which players can enter the competition as well as award prizes to the winners. These prizes can be in the form of in-game rewards or real-world physical prizes. The logistics of delivering physical prizes are handled by the retail giant, although at this point, real-world rewards are only available in the United States. The service also includes tools that help developers detect fraud and abuse committed by the players during a competition.
The software tools provided by the Amazon GameOn service can work across a variety of gaming platforms, including consoles, personal computers, and mobile devices. The service utilizes APIs that allows developers to access the platform’s features while at the same time supporting a number of operating systems. Among the APIs that the Amazon GameOn offers is the REST API, which enables developers to take advantage of the features of the platform while maintaining full control of the game’s design and user interface. According to the tech firm, it usually takes less than two weeks for developers to integrate the platform into their games.
Right now, game developers can use the GameOn APIs for free, although after May 1, 2018, the retail giant will charge developers $0.003 for every play above the first 35,000 plays for the month. On its website, Amazon further mentions that it does not charge any setup fees and that it counts each score posted as a single play. In an effort to expand the services that the retail giant offers to game developers, Amazon has also recently acquired the cloud-based gaming platform company GameSparks. GameSparks allows game developers to create leaderboards, chat rooms, virtual goods, and other features, and it is built on a number of cloud-based platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and the Google Cloud Platform.