Amazon ‘is planning to launch a Stadia rival’

Amazon is reportedly gearing up to announce its own game streaming service.

According to CNET sources said to be familiar with the company’s plans, the retail giant will announce a rival to xCloud, PlayStation Now and Stadia in 2020.

Amazon is said to have begun recruiting people from companies including Microsoft to help with the launch, and the service will reportedly be integrated with live streaming platform Twitch.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter suggested Amazon’s streaming service will arrive in time to compete with next-gen consoles in 2020. “The odds of them letting the Scarlett and PS5 launch without Amazon being there is zero,” he said.

CNET’s report implies the game streaming service could be included with Amazon Prime subscriptions.

The Information also reported in January that Amazon was developing a game streaming service.

Amazon Game Studios revealed in July it’s co-developing a free-to-play Lord of the Rings MMO for PC and consoles.

The news followed confirmation of a round of layoffs in June, when Amazon Game Studios said it was reorganising some of its teams to prioritise development of sandbox MMO New World (pictured), third-person survival shooter Crucible and “new unannounced projects”.

It was subsequently reported Amazon may countenance its game development studios using third-party engines to bring projects to market following struggles with its proprietary Lumberyard software.

Sony said in October that its game streaming service PlayStation Now has one million subscribers. Microsoft’s Project xCloud is currently in public preview, while Google’s Stadia launched in 14 markets on Tuesday.