Amazon confirms Double Helix game studio acquisition

Giving fodder to rumors of the retail giant’s excursion into the gaming industry, Amazon has just acknowledged news of its latest acquisition. However, its purchase of game developer Double Helix may not necessarily be evidence of its rumored game console ambitions.

The game console industry, once the purview of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, is experiencing a slight shift in currents with the arrival of the likes of OUYA and Steam Machines. In the Android world alone, there are numerous active efforts to bring mobile gaming into the living room as well. One of latest darlings seem to be Amazon, who has been rumored to be working on its own Android gaming console. It’s somewhat hard to give this much credence considering Amazon has also been rumored to be making smartphones and set-top boxes, neither of which have materialized. At least, not yet.

News of the acquisition wasn’t meant to go public yet but was accidentally leaked from a recruitment event set for later this month at Los Angeles. Since the cat is out of the bag anyway, Amazon chose to confirm the purchase. Details of the acquisition are unknown though it has been said that Double Helix’s employees will continue to work in Orange County but under Amazon’s supervision.

This business move could mean an eventual game console, or it could simply mean an eventual rain of games with Amazon’s name slapped on top. The official statement talks about building innovative games for customers, which doesn’t necessarily mean delivering hardware to play it on. Amazon has mostly been quite focused on its business of delivering content instead of venturing into devices outside of its tried and true Kindle readers and tablets, which seems to work for it just fine, at least for now.

VIA: SlashGear