Amazon launches free engine for video games

Amazon Web Services is launching a free video game engine to enable studios to make sophisticated games and connect them to the cloud.

The move is the latest step by Amazon.com into the realm of video games, an industry revolutionized by the wide availability of broadband, cloud storage and open-source software.

Small studios can now produce and distribute runaway hits that in the past were exclusive to big publishers such as Electronic Arts, Sony and Microsoft.

By offering small studios Lumberyard, a free engine that helps craft artificial video game worlds, Seattle-based Amazon aims to connect the startup crowd to its AWS platform.

Online video game hosting is increasingly big business for Amazon and its competitors with revenue derived from renting computing power and data storage, and Amazon is betting that its own game tools will boost its presence in that market, said Patrick Walker, a vice president with EEDAR, a video game industry research group. "This could have a dramatic impact on the game development ecosystem." The move into video game engines puts Amazon in competition with leading engine makers Epic Games, builder of the Unreal engine, and Unity Technologies. Both companies develop those engines, in part, at studios in the Seattle area.

The Seattle area is also home to Valve, the software maker behind the Source video game engine and the Steam game distribution platform, which Amazon's retail arm already competed with.

"By starting game projects with Amazon Lumberyard, developers are able to spend more of their time creating differentiated gameplay and building communities of fans, and less time on the undifferentiated heavy lifting of building game engine components and managing server infrastructure," Amazon said in a statement.

The effort is also part of Amazon's increasing interest and expertise in a key entertainment sector that provides content for the many media devices it sells, from tablets to set top boxes.

The company also has bought game enterprises and hired game developers. In a $1 billion deal in 2014, it bought Twitch Interactive, a site that lets gamers stream their game-playing. Lumberyard, which is available in beta for developers, has a feature that lets developers engage with fans on that service.

"Amazon wants to be more involved in the video game industry," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert W. Baird.

Amazon says Lumberyard will soon have mobile and virtual reality platforms. The company also announced a new service for running multi-player games on the cloud dubbed Amazon GameLift. That service will have a "small" per-player fee, the company said.

Amazon's move into video game tools is another example of the company's interest in advancing beyond just building Internet-based plumbing for developers, and toward creating more advanced building blocks for specific industries. "Building and operating the back end for a game is both increasingly important for success, and also increasingly challenging," said James Gwertzman, chief executive of PlayFab. The Seattle startup builds infrastructure tools for game developers, services it hosts on Amazon Web Services.

"There's no reason developers should be building this sort of technology from scratch."

"What Amazon announced today is still very early days," he said. "We expect more from them over time."

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Amazon Prime, now with free same-day deliveries

That's a phrase millions of Amazon Prime members may start saying, thanks to the online retailer adding free same-day deliveries to the $99-a-year membership program.

For now, the new service, unveiled Thursday, will be a stripped-down version of Prime's current, free two-day deliveries. Over 1 million items will be available for free same-day shipments -- a fraction of the 20 million available in the US for two-day deliveries. Orders need to be more than $35 and purchased before noon, or will arrive the next day instead. Also, the service will be available for now in 14 metro areas (encompassing 500 cities and towns) across the US.

Even with those limitations, the new service marks a big step forward for Prime pulling off a long-sought goal in the retail industry of offering cheap (or free) same-day deliveries. Google and Walmart are two other firms racing to create same-day networks. Prime members in a handful of cities were already able to order same-day deliveries, but need to pay $5.99 an order (that fee will still kick in for items not listed for free same-day service).

Amazon was able to offer the new service thanks to its huge investment over the years in its network of warehouse-and-delivery hubs it calls fulfillment centers, Chris Rupp, vice president of Amazon Prime, said in an interview.

"We can get items closer to customers, get more items in stock and be able to deliver as quickly as possible," she said of the delivery network.

The new service may help Amazon maintain and grow its tens of millions of Prime customers -- who pay $99 a year for free shipping, a streaming video library and cloud storage -- during a time when the e-commerce giant is staring down plenty of new competition. Walmart will test out a $50-a-year unlimited shipping service, eBay plans to pilot a buyer loyalty program in Germany, and startup Jet.com, which hasn't officially launched, is looking to offer a new member-focused online marketplace. Also, Google has been developing its Express shipping service and Uber is dabbling in deliveries. Startups including Instacart and Postmates are also getting in the mix.

While none of those new efforts come close to Amazon's size or reach, Amazon appears to be working hard to stay ahead of the competition and speed up its deliveries to make itself more desirable for consumers. Prime is an especially critical part of Amazon's business, since Prime users tend to spend considerably more with Amazon than others, so the retailer is keenly focused on building up Prime's services.

The new same-day shipping for Prime members expands on two smaller rapid-delivery programs within Amazon. The company offers grocery deliveries around New York City, Seattle, Philadelphia and parts of California under the brand Amazon Fresh. In December, Amazon started Prime Now, a one-hour delivery service for tens of thousands of items that's its quickly expanded to Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Dallas, Manhattan and Miami. Both services are available only to Prime customers, with Fresh requiring a special $299 annual Prime Fresh membership.

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Nasdaq Composite Gains as Google, Amazon.com Rally on Earnings

The Nasdaq Composite Index extended a record and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed at an all-time high as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. rallied after posting quarterly results.

Google jumped 3.3 percent after saying first-quarter advertising volume jumped. Amazon climbed 14 percent as sales climbed more than analysts projected. Microsoft gained 10 percent, the most since April 2009, after quarterly profit beat estimates.

The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7 percent to 5,092.09 at the close in New York. The gauge closed at a record yesterday, sailing past its dot-com era peak as EBay Inc. and Microsoft rose. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.2 percent to 2,117.69, its highest ever. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 21.45 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,080.14.

“It’s very positive that this time you actually have good tech earnings to support the Nasdaq record,” said Manish Singh, who helps oversee $2 billion as head of investments at Crossbridge Capital in London. “We’re not seeing the same euphoria we saw 15 years ago. The rally in the tech stocks looks sustainable because these companies have been in the market for many years. The U.S. earnings season overall is turning out to not be so bad after all.”

The S&P 500 climbed 1.8 percent for the week, beating its closing record set on March 2. The Dow is still 1.1 percent below its all-time high reached the same day.

Technology Earnings

The Nasdaq Composite has almost quadrupled since global equity markets bottomed in March 2009, paced by gains in tech giants from Apple Inc. to Google. Results from International Business Machines Corp. and Intel Corp. this season helped extend a five-year expansion that have lifted tech profits to a record.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index fell 1.5 percent to 12.29, the lowest since Dec. 5. The gauge, known as the VIX, slid for a fifth day, its longest downward streak in four months. About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 6 percent below the three-month average.

Information technology firms earned $194 billion from continuing operations in 2014, about 19 percent of the S&P 500 as a whole, compared with $67 billion in 2000, or 13 percent, data compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices show.

Results from Apple and Pfizer Inc. are due next week. Of those that have reported this season, 77 percent beat profit projections and 49 percent exceeded sales estimates.

While analysts predict an earnings decline through September for S&P 500 companies, they have tempered how steep that will be. They forecast first-quarter profit will drop 2.9 percent, an improvement on April 10 estimates for a 5.6 percent decline.

Equities fluctuated during the past month amid concerns that a stronger dollar and lower oil prices would hurt corporate earnings as the Fed considers raising rates. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has soared 4.4 percent this year.

Dollar Headwind

“It’s all about earnings,” said Hank Smith, who oversees $8 billion as chief investment officer at Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Haverford Trust Co. “What the market is also expressing is that this dollar headwind is in the market. It’s not unexpected. If it was unexpected, I don’t think you would see the S&P near an all-time high.”

Four out of 10 major groups in the S&P 500 advanced. Technology companies added 1 percent, while Amazon.com led consumer-discretionary stocks to a 1.3 percent gain.

Amazon rose 14 percent to a record after releasing first quarter sales that exceeded analysts’ predictions. The company’s investments in speedy delivery services, data centers, and original video programming brought in more customers as sales jumped 15 percent.

Software Makers

Software companies rose 2 percent as a group as Microsoft gained 10 percent. The world’s largest software maker announced profits yesterday that exceeded analysts’ estimates as growth in cloud software sales and more expensive versions of server programs made up for slowing demand for personal-computer products.

Google jumped 2.9 percent, the most in almost three months, despite releasing profit and sales just short of estimates. The company’s costs were kept well under control, boosting investor confidence.

Starbucks Corp. jumped to a record, rising 4.9 percent after posting sales that beat estimates, fueled by an expanded menu and new mobile-phone application. Juniper Networks Inc. rallied 8.9 percent amid better-than-forecast quarterly revenue.

Time Warner Cable Inc. gained 4.4 percent after Comcast Corp. dropped its $45.2 billion deal to buy the company, officially pulling the plug after concluding the merger would be rejected by regulators. Comcast added 0.7 percent.

Mylan, Biogen

In other deal news, Mylan NV went forward with a hostile $31.2 billion bid for fellow drugmaker Perrigo Co., opting to take its offer directly to shareholders rather than accept a separate takeover proposal from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Mylan added 3.2 percent, while Perrigo slipped 4.3 percent, the most in almost a year.

Biogen Inc. dropped 6.6 percent, the most in a month, after releasing first-quarter earnings and sales below analysts’ estimates.

Xerox Corp. lost 8.8 percent, the most since October 2013, after cutting its full-year profit forecast.

Economic data today showed orders for business equipment unexpectedly fell in March for a seventh consecutive month, a sign business investment will remain sluggish.

Bookings for non-military capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for future corporate spending on new equipment, dropped 0.5 percent. Demand for all durable goods -- items meant to last at least three years -- rose 4 percent on aircraft and autos.

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Amazon's web services are smart enough to make predictions

You no longer have to run a tech giant (or work in a lab) to take advantage of learning computers. Amazon has launched a machine learning feature for Web Services that lets any developer use this computer intelligence to make predictions. Instead of having to sift through data yourself and spend ages fine-tuning algorithms, you let Amazon's servers comb through the info and create predictions largely on their own. This potentially saves you a ton of time, especially if you're running a small outfit that can't afford a lot of servers -- Amazon claims that it took 20 minutes to solve one problem that previously took 45 days.

The service could make a big impact on more than just humdrum business tasks. You should see more games that can anticipate what you'd like to play next, and stores that are better at taking your feedback or suggesting new things to buy. Don't be surprised if your favorite apps and sites are noticeably smarter in the near future.

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Europe takes on Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon

Europe is in the midst of a massive tussle with American tech giants.

The European Union is getting increasingly worried about the dominance of Big Tech and has launched a program to boost the European tech sector.

Apple (AAPL, Tech30), Facebook (FB, Tech30), Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) and Google (GOOG) are all feeling the pressure, finding themselves under the scrutiny of authorities.
Here is what the European watchdogs don't like:

Apple
The EU is preparing to launch an antitrust investigation into Apple's new online music streaming service, according to reports. In particular, officials are probing Apple's agreements with record labels to see if it was trying to illegally sideline its rivals.
Apple did not comment on the investigation.
Apple has also been accused of artificially lowering its European tax bill for decades through a deal with Ireland, where the company's European arm is based.
The EU is now investigating the matter. If it decides Apple breached rules, the iPhone maker could be hit with a higher tax rate and back taxes.


Facebook
European watchdogs have been looking into Facebook's privacy policy because they are concerned about the way the social network collects data from users in Europe for target advertisements.
In a separate class action against Facebook, roughly 25,000 Europeans accused Facebook of not respecting their privacy rights and sharing their data with third parties.
Facebook, which has around 300 million users in Europe, said it follows European privacy laws.

Google
Google controls about 90% of the web searches in Europe, and Brussels officials are concerned that the search engine giant is abusing its power. Specifically, Google has been accused of promoting its own services and content over its competitors' in online search results.
The European Parliament recommended breaking up Google to weaken its dominance across the region. Experts say the European Commission is now preparing a new move against the company.
Google has already lost its battle over the "Right to be forgotten," a European law that requires the company to remove certain unwanted, inappropriate links from search results if requested.

Amazon
Just last week, the European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager launched a probe into Amazon and other e-commerce companies.
The EU wants to investigate whether the online seller breached rules on cross-border trade, for example by charging dramatically different prices for the same product across different EU countries.

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