Amazon To Publish Co-op Title From New Developer Glowmade

Amazon Games is expanding its publishing arm, announcing yesterday that it has joined forces with independent studio Glowmade, which is creating a game based on an original IP.

Glowmade was founded in Guildford, England in 2015 and employs veterans of several successful franchises, including its three founders, who met while working together at Fable developer Lionhead Studios. Its game is described as "a creative online co-op experience" and the company itself focuses on "developing inspirational games which empower joyful creativity."

In addition to New World, which launches next week, Amazon now has at least three other games under its umbrella: Glowmade's title and Smilegate's Lost Ark, for which the company will serve as a publisher, and an unnanounced project that former Daybreak CEO John Smedley has been heading up. It also launched a new studio in Montreal in March, headed up by former Ubisoft developer Alexandre Parizeau.

All hopes are pinned on New World, though, and its rumored budget of nearly half a billion dollars. If that doesn't succeed, and succeed big, it wouldn't be surprising to see at least one of those unannounced internal projects fall by the wayside and for Amazon to shift to being solely a distributor, especially if Lost Ark exceeds expectations.