The studio Pixel Mage wanted to develop an indie MMORPG. Now it is almost entirely working for Amazon.
Last week, we reported that John Smedley, the longtime head of SOE, is now working at Amazon and leading a new team there. The studio is said to be developing a game about which nothing is known yet.
What we didn’t know at the time: He has taken almost his entire previous team, with whom he worked at his own studio “Pixel Mage,” with him to Amazon. This is reported by the US site massivelyop.
Pixel Mage itself was largely composed of people who had collaborated with Smedley at SOE on games like H1Z1. At Pixel Mage, they were then working on a retro MMORPG “Hero’s Song.”
Has Amazon solved Smedley’s problems with Hero’s Song to buy out the team?
Hero’s Song, however, did not receive enough support from potential backers and was discontinued. What was already strange at the time: The studio was proud to be able to refund all backers. This apparently posed no problem for Pixel Mage. They thus discontinued the project due to lack of funds but could still refund what they had, although they naturally had expenses for development.
Now some speculate: Perhaps they could “refund” so well because the Amazon deal was already coming up. The money could have come from Amazon to wrap up Hero’s Song cleanly. But this is just speculation. We will probably never learn the exact background of this.
Amazon and Smedley – Both are streaming on Twitch
It seems strange to many that Amazon is buying a studio that has just failed with its own project. One can be curious to see what exactly Smedley is developing for Amazon. One cannot really imagine a retro MMORPG with a tiny target audience.
However, this is not so far-fetched.
Amazon’s previous projects all seem to be designed to function well on the streaming service Twitch – games like Breakaway (featured image), New World or Crucible.
Smedley was also fully on the Twitch train at SOE; the title initially planned as a zombie MMO, H1Z1, was remodeled under Smedley into a title with instant action and quick rounds to better suit streaming on Twitch. Twitch was purchased by Amazon in August 2014 for nearly one billion US dollars.
Read more background and Smedley’s career here:
From indie to mega-corporation: Everquest founder Smedley leads Amazon team
