HELSINKI, FINLAND — April 7, 2025 — Return Entertainment, a Finland-based developer of a cloud-native smart TV gaming platform, is excited to announce that its debut game, Rivals Arena, is now available for Fire TV customers in the United Kingdom.
By bringing Rivals Arena to Amazon Fire TV, Return Entertainment keeps challenging conventional ways of interacting with games, making premium experiences accessible without specialized hardware. Return Entertainment's platform lets players use their smartphones as controllers by simply scanning a QR code, bringing a new way to enjoy games in the comfort of their living rooms.
"It is great working with Amazon, with their technological ecosystem complementing our gaming innovations in ways that benefit players at every level," said the CEO of Return Entertainment, Vesa Jutila. "AWS GPUs power our cloud infrastructure, their thinking aligns with our in-game ad monetization strategy, and the combination of Fire TV, AWS cloud services, Amazon Games Studios, and Prime Video creates an environment where our vision for accessible TV gaming comes alive."
Rivals Arena is a fast-paced card battler with a twist that has so far captivated audiences in the US as part of the exclusive initial launch on Samsung Smart TVs. User data shows remarkable adoption rates, with 85% of players reporting that the mobile controller was easy to use and 88% saying they could start the game quickly. Most notably, the platform is successfully reaching new gaming audiences, with 44% of users playing games on their TVs for the first time. This success demonstrates Return Entertainment's ability to blur the lines between casual TV viewing and interactive gaming.
New Monetization Model for Smart TV Gaming
Return Entertainment has brought new monetization and performance analytics to Smart TVs with its casual gaming platform solution. Rivals Arena features integrated in-game video ads, including unskippable video interstitials and optional rewarded video ads – a first for smart TV gaming. This approach opens a new market for performance advertising with higher CPM (Cost Per Mille) potential, moving beyond traditional brand ads that dominate TV advertising without measurable effectiveness.
The platform's monetization strategy already shows strong engagement metrics, with over 50% of players choosing to watch optional rewarded ads, adding up to an average of 10 ad views per one hour of gameplay.
Making Cloud Technology Affordable
Rivals Arena leverages AWS spot instances, enabling Return Entertainment to significantly reduce the cost of cloud GPU usage. These spot instances – a stock of non-reserved GPU instances that can be reallocated on a short 2-minute notice – are typically priced up to 90% lower than standard on-demand instances.
"While spot instances are typically difficult to use in traditional real-time cloud gaming, our unique architecture allows our platform to handle them on the fly, reducing our cloud GPU costs even further without compromising the visual fidelity for the gameplay," added Jutila.
“AWS wants to work with partners who push the limits of what is possible with the latest cloud-based solutions. We’re thrilled to be working with Return Entertainment to extend the use of our spot instances to big-screen gaming. This is a great milestone to demonstrate how AWS can enable cost-efficient and globally scalable operations for cloud-based gaming”, says Shayan Sanyal, Global Games Industry BD Lead, Amazon Web Services.
About Return Entertainment
Return Entertainment develops cloud-native technology and games for the next wave of mass entertainment - smart TV cloud gaming. Designed for mainstream consumers, players can enjoy big screen playtime by using their smartphones as controllers. Return Entertainment is backed up by Sisu Game Ventures, Bitkraft Ventures, Vgames, 1Up Ventures, SMOK Ventures and Samsung Next.
For more information on Return Entertainment, please visit: returnentertainment.com.
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