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Bandwidth: Amazon Luna adds Twitch livestreaming, Microsoft Flight Simulator takes to the cloud

This week, all the stars have aligned to bring tons of new games and features to the cloud gaming scene, whether that’s NVIDIA GeForce Now, Amazon’s Luna, or Xbox Cloud Gaming. In fact, Amazon Luna is finally available to everyone within the US with a fair price and adds the ability to stream to Twitch.

Amazon Luna adds Twitch streaming, ups subscription price

This week, Amazon Luna – previously in early access – became available to all in the mainland US. Like other streaming services, Luna allows you to play your favorite games – minus the wires – on almost any device you wish. What makes Luna so interesting for some might be the inherent ability to stream games directly to Fire TVs and Fire tablets. Luna members can also use Chromebooks, PCs, Android, and iOS devices to get in on their favorite titles.

Luna also offers something a little bit different than every other game streaming service, due to its business ties and the fact that it’s owned by Amazon. That connection has given Luna developers the ability to add native Twitch streaming to the feature list on Amazon Luna. That means that anyone who’s playing via Amazon Luna has the tools to start streaming their gameplay to Twitch. Here’s how to get started streaming on Twitch with Amazon Luna:

  1. Start playing the game you want to stream on Twitch.
  2. Tap or click the broadcast button on screen.
  3. Follow the prompts to select your mic and camera and get streaming.
Via Amazon

Everyone can start playing today on Amazon Luna with a monthly subscription price of $9.99 for Luna+ and $5.99 for the Family Channel. Additionally, there’s the Retro Channel, which brings a ton of classics to your device. That subscription costs $4.99/month.

Xbox Cloud Gaming adds Microsoft Flight Simulator, even more titles

You read that right. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is finally coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming! The infamous graphics hogging behemoth that is a Google Earth simulator with somehow even more complicated controls is finally making its way to your nearest Android or iOS device.

All joking aside, this is fantastic news for Xbox Cloud Gaming users, and may even make the subscription worth it all on its own for some, including myself. Microsoft Flight Simulator is known for its power consumption, which makes it difficult or impossible to run on some devices, let alone a handheld device. That includes support for Android and iOS devices, as well as tablets.

Via Microsoft

Arrivals and departures from XboxCloud Gaming

Other than Microsoft Flight Simulator, some new titles are making their way to Xbox Cloud Gaming this week and next. This week, Far: Changing Tides is coming to the game streaming service, while March 10 will bring these new games:

  • Kentucky Route Zero
  • Lawn Mowing Simulator
  • Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Young Souls

On the other hand, these games are leaving Xbox Cloud Gaming soon:

  • Nier: Automata
  • Phogs!
  • Torchlight III
  • The Surge 2

Shadow Warrior 3 and others come to PlayStation Now

To add, PlayStation is adding more games to the list to help keep up with Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming. The biggest name here is Shadow Warrior 3, which is a day-one release for PlayStation Now. Unfortunately, the day-one release also has an end date of July 3, which means subscribers will have to get in as much playtime as they can before the game’s removal.

Via Shadow Warrior

Additionally, there are three other games coming to PlayStation Now, and these don’t have an end date set. Here are the new additions:

  • Chicken Police – Paint it Red
  • Crysis Remastered
  • Relicta

GeForce Now adds even more cloud-compatible games

As with what seems like every week, GFN is adding more games to the list of those compatible for cloud gaming. Just to clarify, remember that users have to buy the full game in order to take advantage of cloud streaming from GFN. While it’s different from Xbox Cloud Gaming, Luna, and the like, it’s still a great service to take advantage of.

Here are the games being added this week to GFN:

  • ELEX II (Steam)
  • FAR: Changing Tides (Steam)
  • Shadow Warrior 3 (New release on Steam)
  • AWAY: The Survival Series (Epic Games Store)
  • Labyrinthine Dreams (Steam)
  • Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (Steam)
  • TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children (Steam)
  • The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (Epic Games Store)

SHADOW teams up with BANDAI NAMCO

The company that brought you ELDEN RING has entered into a partnership with SHADOW, a company that specializes in cloud computing. In fact, because of what SHADOW has to offer, ELDEN RING was available to journalists and others in order to test the game in a stable environment prior to release.

This collaboration opens the door for a new type of title-testing via in-home streaming. If you know anything about ELDEN RING, you’ll recall that the game is highly dependent on frame rate. According to the team at SHADOW, little to no issues were had in the testing phase of this game and the companies will continue to partner up on new projects going forward.

In all, the first week of March marks a whole gambit of different titles, features, and news coming to the cloud gaming sector. Whether you’re looking to stream to Twitch via Amazon’s cloud gaming service, Luna, or you want to chill out and play Microsoft Flight Simulator on your Galaxy S22 Ultra, this week has made it possible.

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