Amazon is pushing further into the world of video games with a new in-app purchasing service for games on Windows PCs, Macs and the web. It’s the Seattle company’s latest attempt to expand the reach of its e-commerce platform, competing with Apple, Google and others.
The company announced the new service this morning, expanding beyond its existing in-app purchasing platform for Android and Kindle Fire developers. In games that use Amazon’s platform, customers will be able to buy virtual goods and currencies using their existing Amazon accounts.
On an FAQ page for game developers, Amazon cites an independent study that “found that Amazon’s In-App Purchasing generates almost 4x the revenue per user as compared to Google Play” on Android devices.
What’s the revenue split for game developers? Amazon isn’t saying publicly. The company says on its in-app purchasing site, “For In-App Purchasing for PC, Mac and Web-based games, please contact us to discuss revenue share.” Amazon uses a standard 70-30 split, in favor of the developer, on in-app purchasing for Kindle Fire and Android.
We’ve contacted Amazon to see if the company will tell us more about the economics of the new service.
