Amazon is getting ready to produce its own virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) content, which it wants to distribute to Amazon Prime Video users. The company revealed its plans in a job posting for a “Virtual Reality Experience Development Executive” this week.
“Amazon Studios has an opening for an experienced content development executive to help develop innovative mixed reality experiences for distribution on Amazon Video,” the job posting reads. Applicants are supposed to not only have experience with the development of TV shows, movies or video games, but also experience with VR technology and content production.
“The ideal candidate will be interested in telling stories uniquely, bringing people together and expanding the definition of entertainment,” according to the posting, which also requires applicants to have “an interest in the future” and even “live slightly in the future already.”
Word about Amazon’s ambitions for VR first got out this March, when the company was looking for developers for VR apps. Sources with knowledge of Amazon’s plans told Variety that the company is developing an app or service similar to the one launched by Hulu earlier this year, with plans to license content from third-party producers.
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But with this new job offer, it looks like Amazon has grander ambitions for VR, including the production of original content. The use of the term “mixed reality” also suggests that Amazon may be exploring AR content as well, possibly targeting headsets like Microsoft’s HoloLens. That’s notably different from Netflix, whose CEO Reed Hastings has been publicly downplaying the importance of VR.
Amazon didn’t respond to a request for comment.
