SEATTLE, April 2, 2014 (Korea Bizwire) — With today’s launch of Amazon Fire TV, Amazon is opening up a new platform for developers to increase their reach and monetization in the living room. Amazon is releasing new developer tools today that allow developers to quickly and easily optimize PC, console or Android mobile apps and games for the new Fire TV. The new tools include sample code, as well as documentation and guidelines to help developers design and build living room experiences, including how to manage the input for the Fire game controller and Fire TV remote. To learn more or download the new tools, visit https://developer.amazon.com/appsandservices/.
“Developers are already finding monetization success with the apps they offer for Kindle Fire and in the Amazon Appstore. Fire TV is the newest reason for developers to bring their apps and games to the Amazon platform,” said Mike George, Vice President, Amazon Appstore and Games. “Fire TV is an opportunity for a broad group of developers—whether it’s existing Android developers or those focused on console, or PC development—to reach into the living room and engage a whole new set of customers who love entertainment. We already have many great developers on board like 2K, AOL, Bloomberg, Clear Channel, Disney, EA, ESPN, Gameloft, Hulu, Mojang, Pandora, SEGA, SHOWTIME, Telltale, Ubisoft, and Vevo—and with today’s announcement we expect many more to join.”
Fire TV supports second screen experiences using DIAL, an open standard that allows customers to discover and open apps on their television right from their tablet or phone. Extending apps to two screens gives developers the ability to take their games to the next level—creating truly immersive gaming experiences for customers through multi-player functionality. Existing Android developers will find developing for Fire TV is very familiar and will simply need to integrate with the new controllers to port their app to Fire TV. And, because the new Fire TV developer tools are available alongside the Mobile App SDK, existing Amazon APIs such as In-App Purchasing, Login with Amazon, and GameCircle are available for Fire TV and work the same way they do on other Fire OS devices.
With the launch of Fire TV, developers can receive 500,000 Amazon Coins through the Appstore Developer Select Program and create campaigns where customers earn those Coins when they purchase apps and games. This is in addition to the regular Appstore Developer Select benefits that include 500,000 mobile ad impressions, enhanced merchandising, AWS credits, and additional Amazon Coins incentives. More details on the Appstore Developer Select program can be found at http://developer.amazon.com/select.
New tools released today enable developers to optimize their apps and games with the Fire TV controllers for multi-player functionality (image: Amazon.com)
Thousands of apps and games from developers including, 2K, AOL, Amazon Game Studios, Clear Channel, Disney, EA, ESPN, Gameloft, Hulu, Mojang, SEGA, Telltale, and Ubisoft will be available on Fire TV. Developers have already been impressed with the ease of development and how quickly their games can be ported to Fire TV. Here is what some developers who’ve been working with Fire TV have to say:
“We are really excited to be developing Endless Skater for Fire TV, a platform that is so accessible to indie developers,” said Steve Ganem, CEO of SuperVillain Studios. “From day one, it was extremely easy to adapt our Kindle games for Fire TV and to work with Amazon. The Endless Skater experience feels right at home on an HDTV, and is so excellent with Fire game controller.”
“Fire TV is an innovative new platform that provides us the ability to bring a truly immersive gaming experience to the consumer’s living room,” said Baudouin Corman, VP of Publishing for the Americas, Gameloft. “Customers can expect to see popular Gameloft titles, such as Asphalt 8: Airborne, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, and Despicable Me: Minion Rush, optimized for Fire TV at launch.”
“Porting to Fire TV from our existing Android version was quick and the support from Amazon was excellent,” said Johannes Vuorinen, CEO of Frogmind. “Combined with how good BADLAND looks from a large HDTV made the decision to port to the Fire TV platform an easy one.”
“Fire TV offers our viewers another way to align their content preferences with their viewing habits, and will provide a premium environment for consumers to experience AOL On,” said Ran Harnevo, President of Video at AOL. “We believe it will be one of the most game-changing products on the market, and look forward to giving Amazon viewers on-demand access to AOL On, HuffPost Live, and our entire video library.”
“We’re extremely pleased to have SHOWTIME available for Fire TV, and excited that our subscribers have a great new way to experience SHOWTIME ANYTIME on their televisions,” said Tom Christie, President, Distribution, Business Development, and Network Operations, Showtime Networks Inc. “We think our viewers will love watching current and past seasons of our award-winning original series including HOMELAND, RAY DONOVAN and MASTERS OF SEX, along with box office hits, documentaries, specials and hard-hitting live sports on Fire TV.”
“Creating ubiquity for our authenticated WATCH products adds tremendous value to the multichannel video subscription, and collaborating with Amazon to make our networks available on the new Fire TV strengthens that value,” said Matt Murphy, Senior Vice President of digital distribution, Disney & ESPN Media Networks. “Today’s launch of WatchESPN allows early Fire TV adopters to receive live access to sports programming from ESPN networks on day one. Additionally, in the near future, they will also find fan-favorite shows and entertainment programming from our WATCH ABC and Disney authenticated products.”
“Living room viewing now accounts for almost 60% of all content consumption on Hulu Plus, and our accessibility on Fire TV helps us realize our goal of helping viewers find and enjoy premium content when and where they want to, on every device,” said Tim Connolly, Head of Distribution, Hulu. “We’ve worked with Amazon to make Hulu Plus available on all Kindle Fire platforms, and are excited to extend our relationship even further with the launch of Hulu Plus on Fire TV, which utilizes our optimized living room interface.”
“iHeartRadio’s launch onto Fire TV is another key step in our pledge to be everywhere listeners want us to be, whether they are enjoying the music and radio stations they love in their living rooms or on the go,” said Brian Lakamp, Clear Channel’s president of digital. “We’re excited to continue our relationship with Amazon and be able to extend our reach to even more consumers through Fire TV’s simple and affordable in-home platform.”
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Amazon Fire TV is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV for easy and instant access to Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, SHOWTIME, low-cost video rentals, and much more. Kindle Paperwhite is the world’s best-selling and most advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX features a stunning exclusive 7” or 8.9” HDX display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display, high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in, www.amazon.com.mx, and www.amazon.com.au. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
Source: Amazon.com (via BusinessWire)
