Amazon is rumored to release tools for game developers that will allow them to add social features to their games. The information comes from Bloomberg, who spoke to an anonymous source.

The report would make sense, as the company has been openly hiring for developers with social and mobile game development experience for over a year. According to Bloomberg’s source, developers will be able to implement features like monitoring high scores and keeping track of awards won in a game.

Allowing developers the option to add social features to their Kindle Fire games could help the device stay competitive with Apple’s iOS devices and the recently-announced Nexus 7 from Google. While the Kindle Fire had strong initial sales, Amazon hasn’t followed up any sales data, so it’s hard to tell if the device has kept up its momentum.

In order to stay competitive, Amazon needs to provide apps with similar features to those already available on the Apple App Store and Google Play (formerly the Android Marketplace), especially since Amazon’s app store only offers roughly 43,000 apps compared to the 600,000+ available by both Google and Apple.

Image source