Amazon.com Inc. wants to make its Amazon Web Services cloud the backbone of online gaming, so today the company launched a service that makes it easy for developers to add built-in competitions powered by AWS.

Called GameOn, Amazon’s new tool is a set of application programming interfaces that developers can use to add native competition features that work across multiple mobile devices, PCs and game consoles. The service not only uses Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, it also allows developers to reward their competitors with real-world prizes that are fulfilled by Amazon.

“Game developers have consistently told us they are looking for ways to increase player engagement and retention,” Marja Koopmans, director of Amazon Competitive Gaming, said in a statement. “We built Amazon GameOn to give developers simple, yet powerful tools to foster community through competitive gameplay.”

GameOn is a smart move for Amazon, and not just because it locks developers into AWS. Amazon also has a major stake in the future of the esports industry itself thanks to the company’s ownership of Twitch, a popular live streaming platform for gamers. While Amazon is still playing catch-up with the likes of YouTube and Netflix when it comes to web video, Twitch still reigns supreme in the world of esports, with some tournaments boasting more than a million concurrent viewers.

Amazon has been testing GameOn with a few different studios already, including nWay, Game Insight, Millennial Esports’ Eden Games (pictured) and Umbrella Games. Jesse Cherry, senior product lead at nWay, said GameOn’s real-world prizes were particularly appealing, because they create a “stronger incentive for players to participate” in tournaments. Meanwhile, Eden Games Chief Marketing Officer Pascal Clarysse said that Amazon’s new service saved his company “months of development and a whole lot of maintenance and logistical overhead in the long run.”

Developers can currently try out Amazon’s GameOn API’s for free, but the company will start charging for the service after May 1. Amazon said the first 35,000 plays per month will still be free “for a limited time,” after which developers will have to pay $0.003 per play. GameOn’s real-world prize features are only available to U.S. developers, but that may change in the future.

Photo: Eden Games