Amazon is making a game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One based on Jeremy Clarkson's show, 'The Grand Tour'
- After years of acquisitions and false starts, Amazon is making its first major console game: "The Grand Tour."
- The game is based on the show of the same name - one of Amazon's most popular original series, which stars Jeremy Clarkson.
- Rather than creating a simulation-style game, "The Grand Tour" is more like a grown-up "Mario Kart."
Amazon is a wildly successful company, but it can't seem to crack the business of making video games.
Since its formation in 2014, Amazon Game Studios - a trio of game development studios that it owns - hasn't released a single major game. One of the first games announced by the studio, "Breakaway," was canceled earlier this year; two others remain in development, with no announced release dates in sight.
With the announcement this week of "The Grand Tour," it looks like that may finally change.
As the name implies, "The Grand Tour" is a video game based on the hit Amazon Prime show of the same name.
With the upcoming debut of the show's third season, the game is somewhat of a tie-in - players are encouraged to buy a season pass to the game, sold separately, which offers new vehicles and tracks weekly alongside new episodes on Friday.
Despite all the cars, "The Grand Tour" isn't just a racing game.
Instead, it features challenges inspired by "The Grand Tour" format itself - stuff like creating a car that can survive a "doomsday" scenario, then testing it. There's also more straightforward stuff, like head-to-head races between the show's main trio of hosts: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.
Challenges from the show are playable in the game, though it looks like the majority of those challenges will come from the forthcoming third season.
Per the game's description on Amazon (emphasis ours):
"Featuring the incredible cars, exotic locations, and ridiculous challenges from the first episode of 'The Grand Tour' Seasons 1 and 2, and all of Season 3."
Additionally, there's a split-screen multiplayer mode that features power-ups, a la "Mario Kart."
You can even play as the cheeky show hosts, who will sling sharp verbal barbs alongside clouds of blinding dust.
It's not clear when "The Grand Tour" will arrive on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but the game's debut trailer says it's "coming soon." Given the integration with the third season of the show on Amazon Prime, it's likely to debut alongside that - the show is currently filming.
Take a look at the first trailer for "The Grand Tour" right here:
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