Crucible, Amazon’s new team-based action shooter is launching on PC today. This is Amazon’s first big-budget game since the creation of Amazon Game Studios back in 2012, and the company probably won’t be able to avoid comparisons with Xbox Game Studios and PlayStation Studios titles.
Opting for a free-to-play business model seems to be the best way to gain momentum, and this certainly worked well for Fortnite, Apex: Legends, or Call of Duty: Warzone more recently. The game features a roster of 10 characters with unique abilities, and you’ll be able to unlock upgrades as you level up.
It remains to be seen if Crucible will appeal to shooter fans, but Amazon’s place in the video games industry is certainly not to be underestimated. The company owns Twitch, the most popular game streaming worldwide, which will likely provide Crucible some decent exposure in the coming weeks.
Amazon is also one of the few companies with the necessary scale to build a video game streaming service that can rival Google Stadia, PlayStation Now, and Microsoft’s Project xCloud. While Crucible is launching on Steam today, the company may want to make its next first-party games exclusive to its rumored game streaming platform, which is expected to launch next year.
Crucible will be available on Steam at 12PM PT today, and you won’t need a recent gaming PC to play it: The minimum system requirements include an Intel Core i5-3570 processor, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 6950 GPU.
