Amazon Games Studio’s Breakaway put on hold

Breakaway, the online team brawler and one of the first three games from Amazon Games Studios, will likely see a lengthy delay after it was announced the team would be taking more time developing the game following a public alpha test.

While not officially confirmed, a source at the studio has told website Kotaku that the project is on an indefinite hiatus.

The game, which was highly touted at trade shows this year for its Twitch integration and use of the Lumberyard Game Engine, was part MOBA, part brawler and impressed critics with how the game felt. The Twitch integration was meant to allow for quick gameplay matches with streamers and encourage audience participation in the game directly.

However, it looks like the project will have quite a long delay on the sidelines, which the developer announced on its website. "As you know, Breakaway was in Public Alpha from June to the end of September," the post from the Breakaway team reads. "It’s thrilling to play and co-design the game with this fantastic community. Your passion is one of the reasons we believe so strongly in Breakaway.

"Over the course of the Alpha we received a lot of feedback from you that we’re taking to heart. In order to get it right, we’re letting our team take the time to iterate and evolve Breakaway’s core gameplay to deliver what you’ve asked for. We aren’t sure how long this will take, but we think it’s the right thing to do for the game, and you, the community.

"We won’t be hosting Alpha matches during this time, but we still want to hear your ideas for how to improve the game, and we’ll share our ideas for your feedback. Thanks again for your continued passion!"

Amazon Games Studios and the feedback on its titles have been rather promising, despite the studio losing some high profile developers early in its life (Kim Swift of Portal fame left for EA’s Motive Studios and Clint Hocking of Far Cry 2 fame went to Ubisoft). But it has managed to keep more coming in, including Craig Sullivan from Need for Speed developer Ghost Games. It has expanded globally with offices in America and the UK. We spoke with the vice president of Amazon Games Services, Mike Frazzini, at GDC this year to talk about the plans the company has for game development.