Coronavirus reportedly delays Amazon's game streaming service Project Tempo into 2021
But internet giant will release first original IP Crucible next month, interactive casual games for Twitch in the summer
Amazon's entry into the game streaming service could be pushed back to next year due to the disruption caused by COVID-19.
That's according to sources speaking to The New York Times, which reports the cloud game service is now referred to internally as Project Tempo.
It is designed to rival Google's Stadia, Microsoft's Project xCloud and Nvidia's GeForce Now. Amazon had hoped to introduce an early version this year, but coronavirus has caused complications that may delay the release.
The report follows ongoing rumours that Amazon is working on its own game streaming service.
Project Tempo is just one pillar of a major push into video games, for which Amazon has reportedly invested "hundreds of millions of dollars."
The first sign of this investment -- beyond the ongoing work on the Lumberyard engine -- will be Crucible, a multiplayer sci-fi shooter and the first original IP to come from Amazon's internal games studio.
This has also been delayed due to coronavirus-related concerns, originally due to be revealed in early March and launched on March 31. After travel restrictions disrupted Amazon's marketing plans -- likely an allusion to the postponement of GDC -- the game's launch was pushed back to April 14, and has since been delayed to a vague May.
Crucible will be a team-based game in the spirit of League of Legends and Dota 2, and has been developed by Amazon's studio in Seattle, now named Relentless -- a nod to the original name founder Jeff Bezos had planned for Amazon.
New World, an MMO developed by Amazon's team in Irvine, California, will also be released in May. The same studio is also working on a Lord of the Rings MMO, with a third unannounced project in the works at a San Diego studio under the leadership of former Sony Online Entertainment boss John Smedley.
The report also reveals that Amazon is working on a new type of casual game that streamers on the company's Twitch platform will be able to play with their viewers. These are due to debut in the summer.
Speaking to the New York Times, Amazon's vice president for games services and studios Mike Frazzini said: "The big picture is about trying to take the best of Amazon and bringing it into games.
"We have been working for a while, but it takes a long time to make games, and we're bringing a lot of Amazon practices to making games."