Back in 2017, Amazon Game Studios was on a hiring spree. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite were proving to be unprecedented successes in the gaming scene, and everyone was taking note. Amazon wanted to chase the trends and greenlit a Battle Royale experience codenamed Intensity.
The game wasn’t just any old Battle Royale though, Amazon had ambitious plans with the modding community to create a game that would have been revolutionary at the time.
The game was designed as a multi-match Battle Royale, where players could influence the next match by doing a variety of different tasks. Befriending one of the game’s many NPC factions was the most game-changing and would create new opportunities for the player in the next subsequent rounds. Factions were able to protect you, provide resources, and send you on missions for rewards.
One faction, stationed at a shipping port could ship in weapons for example. Whereas another faction specialized in custom vehicles that could give the player an edge in the game.
Just like all Battle Royales, the game had a circle that would move into the middle of the map throughout the game. This game’s circle wasn’t gas though, it was deadly flying drones that would chase the player and shoot at them if they weren’t quick enough to move to the middle of the map.
Apart from a Battle Royale experience though, modding was a huge focus of the game. Its intention was to allow anyone to make their own custom map, and change weapon values, vehicle values, and more without any coding experience.
There was a more complex modding experience, too. Players were able to create their own custom NPC’s, camo’s, weapons, and change the entire game to their liking.
Experienced game modders and developers were brought in from across the world to advise on the ambitious project throughout 2018, but by the end of the year, the project went dark. In early 2019 the project seemingly was eventually canceled altogether.
The story of Intensity is a familiar one for Amazon. Several projects have been canceled in the past 4-5 years for different reasons, but Amazon still continues to show its commitment to the gaming scene. New World, the hit MMORPG achieved over 900,000 concurrent players on launch and still retains a peak of 45,000+ players monthly.
The opportunity for comment was given to Amazon and acknowledged, but no comment was given.
UPDATE – Ex-Creative Director at Amazon Games, Thaddeus Sasser, has acknowledged the existence of the canceled Battle Royale in a couple of tweets.
Sasser worked at Amazon from December 2017 – August 2019 “to construct a 256 km square open world shooter game.”, says his LinkedIn profile.
For more Insider Gaming exclusives, check out our article on Sony’s new PlayStation 5 that will have a detachable disc drive.
