Amazon just today revealed their new media streaming and gaming device FireTV, and now have announced they are adding two veteran talents to their game studio. Kim Swift, one of the designers behind Portal, and Far Cry 2's Clint Hocking are the names being brought in, and they're a clear sign Amazon is taking the new game development aspect of their business pretty seriously.
The FireTV will offer games usually seen on smartphone and tablets for your television, and you can play with the box's remote or a dedicated controller Amazon is selling separately. They showed off some first-party games at FireTV's unveiling earlier today and announced several major developers who will be working on the platform, (EA, 2K, Telltale).
Amazon also recently purchased developer Double Helix (Killer Instinct), so combined with these two new employees, we may see some good games coming on for FireTV. They should off footage from a first-party game named SevZero and announced that Minecraft will be available for the platform. You can probably expect popular mobile phone and tablet games to make their way to FireTV, as well as whatever other titles Amazon has in the works with their studio.
Swift was a well-known force behind the surprise hit Portal, and Hocking has also worked at both Valve and Lucas Arts, helping to make Splinter Cell in addition to the aforementioned Far Cry 2 and other titles. It's unclear if they're being brought in to help work on a project underway, or to create something new using their visions, but Amazon is definitely going for it in regards to gaming.
Source: Kotaku
