
Amazon Acquires Video Gaming Studio Double Helix Games - hornokplease
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/amazon-acquires-video-gaming-studio-double-helix-games/
======
cwyers
The article says Double Helix is being acquired for "both talent and IP,"
which... I can't fathom what IP Double Helix owns, unless it's IP from a game
or games that haven't been released or even announced yet. They've worked on
mostly licensed games, and I don't think Shiny owned the Earthworm Jim IP when
the merger happened.

As for this rumored $300 Amazon console... huh? That's more than a 360, which
still is getting some new games and has a massive back catalog. It's more than
a WiiU, which has support of some of the most popular video game IP ever and
some really good first-party developers and is still struggling from lack of
third-party support. An Amazon console priced like a Ouya and targeting that
niche, I can see. But a full-priced console? It's going to take far more than
one AAA developer that has focused almost entirely on licensed IP to support
that.

~~~
CamperBob2
More likely Amazon's planning an Onlive-like service. It would be a better fit
for their cloud-based services approach.

~~~
cwyers
They do have AppStream, and they do target it for gaming applications, but
according to the FAQ:

[http://aws.amazon.com/appstream/faqs/](http://aws.amazon.com/appstream/faqs/)

"Applications that have extremely low tolerance for latency are not
recommended for streaming. Examples include first person shooters or player
vs. player fighting games."

And AppStream seems to require applications that are specifically written for
it, so they still have the same problem with third-party support. And if it's
a primarily streaming-based gaming console, the idea that it would cost $300
makes even less sense.

~~~
serge2k
Their G2 instances support nvidia grid. You can get an otoy ami that's meant
for streaming games.

------
andrey-p
I've always felt a bit awkward about people from Shiny, who used to create
ridiculously creative games back in the day, churning out games based on
Hollywood film franchises. I'm not really sure how to feel about this
development, too.

(Note: I haven't played anything from Double Helix's current output, so I
could be very wrong about feeling awkward here.)

~~~
mathattack
Perhaps if they have equity they don't feel too bad about the decision. :-)

Sometimes a commercial tie-in can mean the difference between ten thousand
playing your game and ten million.

------
boroadlkjq
Has Double Helix done anything really good? Last time I heard they tried to
remake Killer Instinct into a cheap cash in where you have to pay to buy
characters.

~~~
jwcooper
Killer Instinct is pretty popular, and fairly well reviewed. It did go with a
model similar to League of Legends where you can play it for free, but then
buy each character, or buy a pack of characters[1]. It's not a terrible model
if it's priced fairly and balanced well. The characters do seem a little
expensive, but if you play each one for more than a few hours, it's probably
worth it in the end.

The worst offenders are games like Forza that are a $60 up front purchase, and
then also have micro-transactions to buy cars (you can also grind many hours
away to get them).

I believe Double Helix also has a game called Strider (related to the original
arcade game of the same name somehow)[2] coming out soon that is somewhat
anticipated.

[1]
[http://killerinstinct.wikia.com/wiki/Killer_Instinct_(Xbox_O...](http://killerinstinct.wikia.com/wiki/Killer_Instinct_\(Xbox_One\))
[2][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strider_(2014_video_game)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strider_\(2014_video_game\))

~~~
TheCraiggers
I feel it is disingenuous to compare this to League of Legends' model. The big
difference is that in LoL, you can buy characters with in-game currency earned
from playing the game. The only thing you can't buy with earned currency are
cosmetic skins for your characters. So while you might not look as fancy,
you're never at a tactical disadvantage in-game just because you haven't sunk
a wad of cash into it.

KI:3, if I remember right, only gives you two characters to play for free, and
doesn't stop opponents with bought characters from playing you. I presume KI,
like most fighting games, have attempted to balance the characters; this may
alleviate the point somewhat. But typically they never get the balance quite
right for all skill levels. That is, Alice and Bob might be equal at the top-
level competitive play (and even that is a stretch in most games) but at the
beginner's tier, Bob is way stronger. A great example of this is strong & slow
characters versus weak & fast characters. The faster characters are typically
better for beginners as they're better for button mashing and missing an
attack isn't as detrimental to your health bar.

~~~
chrisrhoden
It's a demo. You can buy all of the available DLC for the price of a standard
game. The fact that you can play against people with the full game when you
only have the demo might be a strategy to get you to buy, but I'd wager most
people would call it better than the alternative.

------
incision
Sad to realize the studio behind Messiah [0] and Earthworm Jim [1] has ended
up specializing in shoveling out licensed trash [2][3].

0:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_(video_game)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_\(video_game\))

1:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthworm_jim](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthworm_jim)

2:
[http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/battleship](http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/battleship)

3: [http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/gi-joe-the-rise-
of-c...](http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/gi-joe-the-rise-of-cobra)

------
TronPaul_
If Amazon wants to "compete directly with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo,"
they'll need to do more than make an Android console. If they can't get cross
platform titles, then all they are is an overpriced Ouya.

------
hershel
One interesting part of the story is amazon having a sub $300 console that
competes directly with Sony and Microsoft.

My guess about that that it would be:

(a) a console financed by ads or amazon product sales on the tv

(b)A weaker console with quality content being offered through cloud gaming

(c) A combination of a,b. Also this console will be somehow tied to prime.

And my guess that the price would be substantially less than $300.

Does anybody have other rumors or guesses about that ?

~~~
stonemetal
How about a steam box with custom integration for amazon prime video streaming
and buying digital downloads from amazon.

~~~
hershel
Interesting. With the new intel processors you could get a $250 decent steam
box. Amazon can get it for less,and than subsidize it some more and get it to
a good price with a lot of really attractive content.

Still all signs point to android.

------
rottyguy
Seems like Google and Amazon are building similar companies baselined on
revenues from disparate sources (AMZN: Merchandise/GOOG:Search -- realize this
is not the complete picture but certainly the starting point). Interesting to
see these types of companies emerge (ones willing to dilute/evolve from their
original core competancy in order to sustain). Will traditional (large)
companies do the same?

~~~
Pxtl
Has Google moved into the gaming industry at all? I've always thought the lack
of Google gaming assets was surprising given the popularity of Android games.

~~~
Pxl_Buzzard
Ingress[1] is a real-world game created by a startup within Google.

[1] [https://www.ingress.com/](https://www.ingress.com/)

~~~
mason240
My guess is that Ingress (which is currently Android based) is a testing
ground for eventually creating a real life, meatspace MMORPG that will be the
"killer app" for Google Glass at mainstream launch.

------
confluence
Amazon is eating the world. I can't wait until they start producing TV shows
and movies like Netflix. The game is on.

~~~
draz
I have mixed feeling about this. Although Amazon is one of my favorite
companies with great customer service, I am asking myself whether the day will
come where they'll eat up all the competition, make the cost of entry to any
domain prohibitive (by negotiating great distribution deals for themselves --
deals that no one else can strike), and then raising the prices. Just to be
clear: if Amazon can buy a pencil at 1c due to bulk orders, and everyone else
can only get it at 3c (due to smaller volumes of sales), Amazon could sell it
for 3c, make profit, and still not allow anyone else into the market. As a
consumer, what do I care, right? I'm always getting the lowest price. But as
an entrepreneur and someone who wants to see things get better, it's an issue
if no one else can "disrupt" the market in a financially responsible way (
<\-- and I'm specifically phrasing it this way because I think it's in mode
these days to get a lot of VC money to "scale," and worry about profit later.
I find it hard to believe that with just VC money anyone could "scale" to
Amazon's dimensions).

~~~
jerf
Contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal to have a monopoly; it is
illegal to have an _abusive_ monopoly. If Amazon really does build a system
where they truly can sell everything cheaper than the competition could even
hope to, and then they _do_ , well... great! That's a pretty big win for
society in general.

If, on the other hand, they use their monopoly position to illegally crush
everyone else, then raise prices until the next time they have to crush
someone, you have an antitrust case. And note that there's already more than a
whiff of accusations about the former going on, that they are using Amazon
stock price to power a market domination move which they will then use to
monopolize and extract rent. It's a bit hypothetical at the moment, but it's
not as if nobody's looking for this to occur.

Amazon's stock price is, IMHO, pretty clearly predicated on the "crush all
opposition than extract rent" model being what the market expects to see,
incidentally. Stay tuned.

------
CmonDev
"As you can tell by the titles, it specializes in large-scale action games
based on blockbuster franchises." \- makes me sad when companies have to do
this to survive :(.

