Amazon Game Studios is working with a number of notable studios, and now it is adding one more partner.
Over the weekend, the publisher revealed that it is partnering with developer Human Head Studios on a new mobile game called Lost Within. It’s a survival-horror effort that will have players trying to survive a haunted asylum. It’s due out by this summer on Amazon’s Fire Phone and Fire tablet, but the company is also planning to release it on iPhone and iPad.
The Internet megaretailer has built up its internal gaming business over the last year by adding internal studios and making partnership deals like this one. The company makes a lot from game-related products, and it wants to get into the content-creation side of things to help provide consumers with compelling reasons to buy the Amazon Fire TV or aforementioned phone and tablet. Mobile gaming is a $25 billion industry, and Amazon wants a chunk of that.
Human Head producer Chris Rhinehart — who oversaw Prey — is leading development on Lost Within. While it is a mobile release, Amazon and Human Head confirmed they are going for a premium feel with this game. That means high-quality visuals, full first-person controls, and an in-depth story. Essentially, Amazon wants the developer to apply its console experience to making something for tablets and phones.
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Check out an early look at the game:
This is the latest announcement from Amazon, which has released a number of apps for its devices under the Amazon Game Studios brand. Last week, it also started publishing its creations on iOS as it looks to reach a wider audience of players.
Human Head joins other third-party Amazon partners like Shantae developer WayForward Technologies, Angry Tofu developer HotGen, and Saber’s Edge developer Hibernum Creations.
Human Head is best known for creating the time-travel sci-fi shooter Prey for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. That release debuted to decent sales and a mixed critical reception in 2006. The developer began work on a sequel that made its debut to the press at the Electronic Entertainment Expo tradeshow in 2008. It had players taking the role of a bounty hunter on an alien world, and the setting, look, and gameplay impressed many of the people who tried it. But in 2012, after years of development, rumors started to surface that the game was in trouble. In October, publisher Bethesda confirmed it had cancelled the project.
In recent months, Human Head has worked on a free-to-play shooter called Minimum.
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