Amazon Unveils Its Own Cloud Gaming Service

At its 2020 hardware event, Amazon unveiled its own cloud gaming service called Luna, which will use Amazon Web Services (AWB) as its backbone. This adds Amazon’s name to the short list in the cloud gaming field alongside Google’s Stadia and Microsoft’s xCloud. The service touts the ability to play anywhere, which includes on an iPhone and iPad.

Amazon claims that at launch, users of Luna will be able to stream games wirelessly without the need to download them for PC, Mac, Fire TV, and iOS. An Android version has been planned for soon after launch. The introductory price for the service will be $5.99 per month with early access. This will also provide Luna subscribers the ability to play Luna Plus channel games across two devices simultaneously on most resolutions including 4K / 60fps.

The company also claims that more than 100 games will be available via the Luna Plus channel, with launch titles that include Resident Evil 7, Control, Panzer Dragoon, A Plague Tale: Innocence, The Surge 2, Yooka-Laylee, GRID, Abzu, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. More titles are said to be added “over time.” 

Amazon’s Luna will feature Twitch integration allowing gamers to jump into a game they’ve just seen on Stream so long as it’s supported by the Luna service. Amazon has also developed a partnership with Ubisoft for a specific gaming channel with the description “Players who subscribe to this channel will have access to their favorite Ubisoft titles in up to 4K resolution, mobile gameplay, and access to new titles when the channel launches like Assassins Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Immortals Fenyx Rising the same day they release. This is the first of multiple Luna game channels in development, where customers can play games from their favorite publishers and genres.”

A 30-day notice will be provided prior to the end of the early access period which you can currently sign up for. Each game in the list below will be available through Luna+ throughout the early access period:

 

• Resident Evil 7
• Control
• Panzer Dragoon
• A Plague Tale: Innocence
• The Surge 2
• Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
• Iconoclasts
• GRID
• ABZU
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Luna is a cloud gaming service, this means that it’s meant to take advantage of the devices you already own. As such, Amazon has decided not to produce any dedicated hardware for Luna aside from the Luna Controller. The Luna Controller is an Alexa-enabled controller which connects directly to the cloud service and offers a lower-latency experience. During the early access period, the controller will be available at $50 which is still cheaper than more modern gaming pads like PS5’s $70 DualSense.

The controller is not a necessary purchase as you are still able to use any regular Bluetooth game controller, or a keyboard and mouse to play games on the service.

Amazon recommends a 5Ghz wifi connection and says that users can expect to consume a whopping 10GB of data per hour at the 1080p resolution. For Luna to be compatible with your device, here are the following specifications:

• PC (requires Windows 10 with support for DirectX 11)
• Mac (OSX 10.13+)
• FireTV devices (Fire TV Stick – 2nd gen, Fire TV Stick 4K, or Fire TV Cube – 2nd gen)
• Chrome web browser (version 83+) for PC and Mac
• Safari web browser (iOS14) for iPhone and iPad

Luna is not yet available in Hawaii, Alaska, or the US territories and will only be available in the mainland US at this time.