Amazon is loading up on talent for its new gaming arm and has hired two highly-regarded designers from the Seattle area.
Kotaku reports that Portal designer Kim Swift, who was previously at Redmond-based Airtight Games, will be joining Amazon Game Studios. Also heading to Amazon is Clint Hocking, the Far Cry 2 designer who also worked at Ubisoft and most recently spent the last few years with Bellevue-based Valve. Both are listed as Amazon senior designers on their respective LinkedIn pages.
Amazon has been quietly moving into the gaming arena over the last several months, although it’s still unclear what types of games and/or consoles the company is developing.
Today, though, Amazon unveiled its first game for the new brand-new Fire TV platform called Sev Zero, is a third-person shooter tower defense game. Amazon also today showed off the new $99 Fire TV set-top box, which plays movies, TV shows and Android-based games with an Amazon controller.
Amazon Game Studios currently hiring for 53 positions. The company acquired Double Helix Games, an Irvine, Calif.-based studio, this past February.
