Outside of Google Stadia, this week saw some big news in the cloud gaming space. That includes the arrival of Saints Row on Amazon Luna, new efforts from Facebook, and more.
Bandwidth is 9to5Google’s weekly look at the cloud gaming market beyond Google’s own Stadia platform. Every Friday, we take a look at the biggest news regarding services such as Nvidia GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, PlayStation Now, and Xbox Game Pass, among others. Come back weekly, and don’t forget to check out Stadia Changelog, our weekly roundup of everything new on Stadia.
Amazon Luna adds Saints Row, announces more games
Available this week on Amazon Luna is Saints Row The Third: Remaster Edition. The game was previously announced for the platform just ahead of July, but no release date was provided at the time. Now, the game is available to anyone who already has access to Luna+.
In addition to Saints Row, Amazon Luna is adding even more games to its Luna+ subscription in August. The company confirmed three new games this week, including:
- Hokko Life
- Open Country
- Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead
Latest GeForce Now additions
Nvidia confirmed 14 new titles available to GeForce Now users this week, most notably including several day-and-date releases. The full list is below.
- Escape From Naraka (Steam, July 29)
- Starbase (Steam, July 29)
- Banners of Ruin (Steam, July 30)
- BUSTAFELLOWS (Steam, July 30)
- Vesper (Steam, July 30)
- Alan Wake (Epic Games Store)
- Battlezone: Combat Commander (Steam)
- Evil Genius (Steam)
- Evil Genius 2: World Domination (Steam)
- Lumberjack’s Dynasty (Epic Games Store)
- Moonlighter (Epic Games Store)
- Trials Fusion (Ubisoft Connect)
- X3: Farnham’s Legacy (Steam)
- Zombie Army 4: Dead War (Steam and Epic Games Store)
Facebook brings its cloud gaming to iOS
Cloud gaming is a tricky subject on Apple’s iOS, as the tech giant has taken a hostile stance against the technology and effectively banned apps from offering the service while being distributed from the App Store. iOS, of course, has no option to sideload apps instead.
Facebook has been offering cloud gaming to Android users for some time now but just recently managed to offer the same to iOS users. Different from the Android implementation, though, is that Facebook cloud gaming on iOS is accessed through a web app that can’t be advertised through the main Facebook app. Players can access games like Asphalt 9 through fb.gg/play.
In a statement to The Verge, Facebook’s gaming VP expressed frustration in Apple’s policies over cloud gaming.
We’ve come to the same conclusion as others: web apps are the only option for streaming cloud games on iOS at the moment. As many have pointed out, Apple’s policy to ‘allow’ cloud games on the App Store doesn’t allow for much at all. Apple’s requirement for each cloud game to have its own page, go through review, and appear in search listings defeats the purpose of cloud gaming. These roadblocks mean players are prevented from discovering new games, playing cross-device, and accessing high-quality games instantly in native iOS apps — even for those who aren’t using the latest and most expensive devices.
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