Amazon Announces GameLift Streams, Empowering Developers to Stream Their Games

Amazon GameLift Streams has been announced by the tech giant. Powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon GameLift Streams is a new method to help support developers in enabling their games to be streamed on nearly any device with a browser.

As announced by the company, Amazon GameLift Streams’ technology allows games to no longer have to spend time and resources modifying their games for streaming. The technology also bypasses the need for developers to build their own streaming infrastructure. With streaming options available, players can jump into a game within seconds without having to install their games on their devices.

Amazon GameLift Streams enables developers to upload their game content onto fully managed GPU instances in the cloud and start streaming within minutes. This applies to demanding AAA games and moderately intensive AA titles. The tech can also be accessed by indie developers, working on smaller games. Their games can then be streamed to player PCs, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. Amazon GameLift Streams supports Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and any browser enabled with the WebRTC open protocol

Running off the backbone of AWS, games utilizing Amazon GameLift Streams will be able to offer streams of 1080p resolutions and up to 60fps. Amazon announces that Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Jackbox Games, Ludeo, and Xsolla are a few notable customers already using Amazon GameLift Streams.

“With more than 750 million people playing games running on AWS every month, we have a long history of supporting the industry’s game development, content creation, player acquisition, personalization, and more,” said Chris Lee, general manager and head of Immersive Technology at AWS. “Amazon GameLift Streams can help the game industry turn billions of everyday devices around the world into gaming machines without rebuilding game code or managing your own infrastructure. For game developers, this creates new revenue and monetization opportunities that weren’t possible before.”

Streaming games can be of huge benefit for a number of reasons. The first is the access for players. With Amazon GameLift Streams, players can access their games on any device they prefer to play on. No longer will they have to purchase a high-end PC to jump into an Amazon GameLift Streams-enabled game. The other benefit is discoverability. Rather than have to download and install a game that looks of interest, players can stream it within seconds and try it out.

Amazon GameLift also includes Amazon GameLift Servers. Once again, utilizing AWS’ cloud-based services, many game developers around the world are building their games on Amazon’s cloud architecture. This includes Ubisoft, Zynga, WB Games, and Meta. Amazon GameLift Servers have impressively been benchmarked to support up to 100 million concurrent users for a single game.