Next Gen Gaming: How Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony Stack Up – Premium

Unlike the previous generation console wars between companies like Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and previously Sega, the next generation battlefields is going to look a lot different than yesterday. This isn't unexpected as we have now heard about Stadia, xCloud, and there is good reason to believe that Amazon is building a streaming service and Sony, clearly has something up their sleeve too.
In this post, I hope to breakdown the strengths and weakness of each vendor as they prepare to begin selling good and services targeted at gamers for the next generation. While this is not a perfect deep-dive analysis, it combines known information as well as insider content to help paint the best available picture until every company has fully unveiled their streaming services.
Companies that are competing in this segment include Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. For this exercise, I will be using these companies and comparing them across cloud technology, fanbase, Intellectual property, online services, and hardware. For scoring, I have used A, B, C, and D; A being the best and D being the lowest mark.
The goal is not to pick a platform and assign a platform as the 'one to beat' but highlight the challenges each service has going forward. And let's be clear, there are multiple new players in this market which means that missing on one key element, could be a significant setback for a service.
Amazon:
Amazon may be the most interesting company entering the gaming segment. The company has a massive cloud infrastructure established, has already proven that it can sustain a gaming community with Twitch, and has the cash to make big purchases when the need arises.
For cloud technology, Amazon gets an easy A; they have the back end services in-place in production today to support a global gaming community. AWS (Amazon Web Service) is the leader in the commercial cloud segment and Amazon has done an excellent job at making it the platform of choice for most gaming companies and Twitch runs flawlessly on it as well.
But on the fan-base, this one is a bit tricky. While a lot of people watch other players game on Twitch, Twitch itself isn't filled with casual gamers simply looking to have a good time: Twitch is the place you go to try and build a gaming career and following.
For Amazon, it's an excellent service for top-tier gamers but for average joes, Twitch isn't something you play, it's something you watch. If Amazon can turn Twitch into a networked and connective platform, it could be the home run it needs as it has the gamers but they aren't yet gaming on Amazon's hardware. For this, I give Amazon a C as it has the makings of a great community but it needs to take the next stop and helping gamers connect to play together outside of streaming without leaving the Amazon portfolio of services.
The biggest challenge for Amazon is not being in control of the IP - the company doesn't have any lucrative titles that will entice players...

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