Amazon Games today announced it has reached an exclusive publishing agreement for North America and Europe with Korean developer Smilegate RPG. They will collaborate to publish a game releasing next year, with specific details to be revealed at a later date.
“Smilegate has a strong track record of creating big games that players love, built to offer years of enjoyment—exactly the type of best-in-class, living, growing online games we want to bring our customers.” said Christoph Hartmann, VP, Amazon Games.
Founded in 2002, Smilegate (parent company of Smilegate RPG) is the creator of CROSSFIRE, the world’s largest first-person online shooter game and one of the most played online games in the world, with over 670 million registered users and more than 8 million concurrent players globally. Smilegate is a leading developer of PC online and mobile games in a variety of genres, including FPS, MMORPG, action, and sports games. Headquartered in Korea, Smilegate maintains regional offices in the US, China, Southeast Asia, and Spain.
“Amazon Games is committed to bringing our customers the most engaging game experiences, both through our own internal development teams and from the very best external development studios around the world,” said Christoph Hartmann, VP, Amazon Games. “Smilegate has a strong track record of creating big games that players love, built to offer years of enjoyment — exactly the type of best-in-class, living, growing online games we want to bring our customers.”
“Smilegate RPG and Amazon Games will combine our respective expertise to introduce one of our AAA games to Western players,” said Chi Won Gil, CEO, Smilegate RPG. “Amazon Games is uniquely positioned as a publisher to reach entirely new audiences through its deep commitment to customers and substantial games publishing resources and channels, including Twitch, Prime Gaming, AWS, and more.”
The Amazon Games leadership team includes veteran developers and publishing executives who helped deliver some of the world’s most popular games. In addition to its publishing agreement with Smilegate RPG, Amazon Games is internally developing New World, the massively multiplayer online PC game releasing in spring 2021, online multiplayer shooter Crucible, an original AAA online game based on the literary works of The Lord of the Rings, and several unannounced projects.