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

亚马逊的游戏新计划：詹姆斯·邦德与 AI 史努比狗狗

After years of shifting strategies, the company is revamping its gaming efforts once again. 在经历了多年的战略调整后，亚马逊再次对其游戏业务进行了全面改革。

Amazon’s gaming strategy has never really been clear. It’s been very active in the space: acquiring Twitch, launching its Luna cloud gaming service nearly six years ago, investing heavily in MMOs during the peak of live-service wave, and having access to a huge slate of franchises through Prime Video and the MGM Studios library. Late last year, the company announced a major pivot, relaunching Luna with a focus on party games you can play with just your phone as a controller — including an AI-powered game starring Snoop Dogg as a judge — and basically jumping ship on MMOs. 亚马逊的游戏战略一直不够清晰。该公司在这一领域动作频频：收购了 Twitch，近六年前推出了 Luna 云游戏服务，在实时服务游戏浪潮的巅峰时期重金投入大型多人在线游戏（MMO），并凭借 Prime Video 和米高梅影业的片库拥有大量特许经营权。去年年底，该公司宣布了重大转型，重新推出了 Luna，重点转向仅需手机作为控制器即可游玩的派对游戏——其中包括一款由 AI 驱动、史努比狗狗（Snoop Dogg）担任法官的游戏——并基本放弃了 MMO 业务。

At the time, it looked like a retreat, but 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 while the company says it has a new, more focused strategy in place, its gaming efforts are still spread across several different pillars. 当时这看起来像是一种退缩，但亚马逊表示事实并非如此。亚马逊游戏总经理杰夫·加蒂斯（Jeff Gattis）告诉《The Verge》：“事实远非如此，只是我们之前没有公开说明。”尽管该公司表示已经制定了新的、更专注的战略，但其游戏业务仍分散在几个不同的支柱领域。

Part of that newfound focus comes from a structural change, as the company now has what it believes is a simpler approach. “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 approach at Xbox, which has an Xbox platform division and Xbox Game Studios. And given Amazon’s push for cloud-streamed party games you can play on just a phone, Gattis is aware of the similarities to Netflix’s strategy, too — which has also had its twists and turns. Until recently, Amazon has tried to go after “core” gamers, but Gattis says that part of the market is “well-served” by things like PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. Amazon isn’t abandoning that group, but it also sees an opportunity to appeal to a more casual audience. 这种新的专注部分源于结构性变革，公司现在采取了其认为更简单的方法。加蒂斯说：“Luna 是我们的游戏平台，亚马逊游戏工作室（Amazon Game Studios）是我们的开发和发行平台。”他承认，这与 Xbox 的做法“并不完全不同”，后者拥有 Xbox 平台部门和 Xbox 游戏工作室。考虑到亚马逊大力推广仅需手机即可游玩的云流媒体派对游戏，加蒂斯也意识到这与 Netflix 的战略有相似之处——后者的战略也经历过起伏。直到最近，亚马逊还试图争取“核心”玩家，但加蒂斯表示，这一市场份额已被 PlayStation、Xbox 和 Steam 等平台“很好地覆盖”。亚马逊并没有放弃这一群体，但也看到了吸引更休闲受众的机会。

Gattis joined Amazon in March 2025 after many years as an exec at Xbox. Gattis says he came to Amazon because he saw a lot of opportunity. “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 groups — Prime Gaming, Amazon Game Studios, and Luna — into one organization. “None of these groups were working with one another,” Gattis says. 加蒂斯在 Xbox 担任多年高管后，于 2025 年 3 月加入亚马逊。他说他来到亚马逊是因为看到了巨大的机会。“我个人无法接受，作为全球最大的消费娱乐公司之一，亚马逊竟然无法打入消费娱乐领域收入最高的细分市场，”他说。自他加入以来，亚马逊将三个独立的游戏部门——Prime Gaming、亚马逊游戏工作室和 Luna——合并为一个组织。加蒂斯说：“这些部门之前互不往来。”

For Luna, a select batch of games are included with an Amazon Prime subscription (including its GameNite party games) and you can pay $9.99 per month for Luna Premium, which has a bigger selection of titles. As for Amazon Game Studios, its biggest known games in the works are the remake Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a new entry in the series. Both are currently set to launch in 2027. And Amazon’s involvement with games extends to a live-action Tomb Raider show for Prime Video starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft. 对于 Luna 而言，亚马逊 Prime 会员订阅包含了一批精选游戏（包括其 GameNite 派对游戏），用户也可以每月支付 9.99 美元订阅 Luna Premium，以获得更丰富的游戏选择。至于亚马逊游戏工作室，目前已知正在开发的最大项目是《古墓丽影：亚特兰蒂斯之谜》（Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis）重制版，以及该系列的新作《古墓丽影：催化剂》（Tomb Raider: Catalyst）。两款游戏目前均定于 2027 年发布。此外，亚马逊对游戏领域的投入还延伸到了 Prime Video 的真人版《古墓丽影》剧集，该剧由索菲·特纳（Sophie Turner）饰演劳拉·克劳馥。

Amazon’s bet on putting Tomb Raider everywhere — there are also a handful of titles available through Luna — indicates where the company sees things 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 part of its go-to-market strategy, Gattis says. He also points to Amazon’s rights deals with sports leagues like the NBA and the NFL, saying there are “all kinds” of “companion-type games” that it can make. 亚马逊押注将《古墓丽影》推向各个平台——Luna 上也提供了一些相关游戏——这表明了该公司对未来趋势的判断。加蒂斯说：“我们确实认为电视和视频游戏之间的界限正日益模糊，”因此“我认为每个主要的 IP 都必须拥有一个视频游戏故事”，作为其市场推广战略的一部分。他还提到了亚马逊与 NBA 和 NFL 等体育联盟的版权协议，称公司可以制作“各种各样”的“配套类游戏”。

Now that Amazon has creative control over James Bond, that seems like another obvious franchise for the company to build more games around, especially after the success of IO Interactive’s recently-released 007 First Light. IO Interactive self-published First Light because of a deal worked out before Amazon took over the franchise, though Amazon has a “stake in the game” and the company is talking with IO about when to bring it to Luna, according to Gattis. 既然亚马逊现在拥有了詹姆斯·邦德的创意控制权，这似乎是该公司围绕其打造更多游戏的另一个显而易见的选择，特别是在 IO Interactive 最近发布的《007：第一道光》（007 First Light）取得成功之后。据加蒂斯称，IO Interactive 之所以自行发行《第一道光》，是因为在亚马逊接手该系列之前就已经达成了协议，尽管亚马逊在游戏中拥有“股份”，且公司正在与 IO 商讨何时将其引入 Luna。

“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 won’t confirm yet whether IO will 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.” “这就是一个典型的例子：用户在 Prime Video 上观看邦德电影，玩视频游戏，然后在 Amazon.com 上购买周边商品，”加蒂斯说。亚马逊拥有“未来所有邦德作品”的版权，加蒂斯表示：“我认为你可以期待（下一款邦德游戏）将由亚马逊游戏工作室发行。”他尚未确认 IO 是否会成为任何潜在续作的开发商。“等这一款游戏的热度平息后，我们会开始着手研究，下一款邦德游戏会是什么样？谁是合适的开发商？什么样的故事情节才合适？所有这些问题。”

Right now, Amazon has 10 to 15 games in development, according to Gattis, who says that “probably 33 to 40 percent” are AAA titles. But those big-budget games aren’t necessary for the new audience Amazon is after with its new Luna games. The Snoop Dogg game came together in “under a year,” Gattis says. Amazon is also “big believers” in generative AI both for AI-powered games like the Snoop Dogg title but also how it can help with development more 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 developing the Tomb Raider reboot, has admitted that it used “AI-assisted tools” during development.) 据加蒂斯称，目前亚马逊有 10 到 15 款游戏正在开发中，其中“大约 33% 到 40%”是 3A 级大作。但对于亚马逊通过 Luna 新游戏所瞄准的新受众来说，这些高预算游戏并非必需。加蒂斯说，史努比狗狗的游戏在“不到一年”的时间内就完成了。亚马逊也是生成式 AI 的“坚定信徒”，不仅将其用于像史努比狗狗这样的 AI 驱动游戏，还将其用于更广泛的开发辅助。“需要明确的是，这些游戏是由人类制作的，只是将 AI 作为工具，”他说。“我们并没有因为 AI 而裁员。我们只是利用它来尝试加速开发，并尝试制作不同类型的游戏。”（正在开发《古墓丽影》重启版的晶体动力工作室已承认在开发过程中使用了“AI 辅助工具”。）