When Amazon barged its way into game development in 2014 with the $970 million acquisition of Twitch, the stated plan was to produce medium-sized games, with medium-sized teams, in 18 months or less. It’s a claim that over five years later, as Crucible becomes the first proper Amazon Game Studios title to see the light of day (sorry, The Grand Tour Game, but you simply don’t count) falls somewhere between ‘slightly naïve’ and ‘outright hilarious’. It probably contributed, however, to Amazon showing off Crucible earlier than it otherwise might have. And looking back makes for a fascinating - and illuminating - comparison.
Crucible is monetised through cosmetics, from character skins to stickers you can apply to the chassis of your drop pod
Crucible was first announced at TwitchCon 2016, alongside MOBA-ish sports game Breakaway (since deceased) and New World, an MMO due this August. Watching the reveal footage now, taken from a point when the game existed mostly as concept art, you can see flashes of the Crucible that exists today, but it’s selling a very different proposition: a 12-player shooter where the aim was to be the last person standing. The MOBA elements were there from the beginning, with promises of a dangerous alien world, but what this early draft most resembles is a proto-battle royale, a few months before PUBG came along and reinvented the online shooter in its image.