Friday, March 6, 2015

Amazon Brings Former Exclusive Games To iOS As Fire Device Sales Collapse, And What Of Minecraft

Source:  The Verge.

Amazon bought some game studios a couple of years ago in hopes of launching exclusives that it hope would stimulate sales of its own Android-forked OS devices, the Kindle Fire tablets and its ill-advised foray into the mobile phone market, the pretty much dead and Fire Phone.  It's like Fire tablets are not doing too well giving it has been many quarters since Amazon crowed about how many millions it has sold without actually giving the public a number.

This is pretty much the reason why Amazon is bring more of its game over to iOS.  One title, Tales from Deep Space, has been giving good reviews and the newer games should be pretty decent.  As an iOS gamer, I'm pretty happy with this. 

From a competitive stand point, there are two takeaways from this.  First, exclusives are not working out too well for developers unless it's on iOS.  Second, Amazon with its bad bet on the Fire Phone may have killed off its mobile hardware business while it tries its damn best to keep a small foothold in the living room. 

I'm personally glad that Apple has not gone down this route and it does not look like it will either.  This is a strategy that console makers like Microsoft and Sony often employed to entice gamers to jump into the Xbox or Playstation camps. 

And what of Minecraft?  Perhaps, Microsoft actually see a profitable business in the Minecraft universe.  However, I hope MC fans on non-Xbox platforms and non-Windows devices should expect Microsoft to prepare exclusives for its own platforms or cut back the perks of or at least cripple the game somewhat for non-Microsoft devices.

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