Amazon Luna

Amazon Luna now lets you buy add-ons for games, even though you don’t own them

Ben Schoon | Feb 9 2023 - 10:30 am PT

Amazon’s cloud gaming service Luna doesn’t seem to be really pulling in subscribers, but the platform is still expanding what it can do. Recently, Amazon Luna has opened the door for buying game add-ons.

Amazon Luna is built on the idea of subscriptions. Players can sign up for the service and pick “channels” that suit their needs. The core Luna+ channel is the primary point of entry, with a large variety of games. But there are also channels for Ubisoft+, as well as Jackbox Party Pack games, and a “Prime” channel that offers a handful of games for free for Amazon Prime subscribers.

With that in mind, expansions and other forms of in-game transactions haven’t really been a part of Luna since its inception, but that appears to have changed.

Devil May Cry 5, which first hit Luna last March, gives players the ability to make add-on purchases through Amazon Luna. The functionality was first spotted by @sDadia_net and we’ve since confirmed it’s live on Luna. It’s unclear how long these add-ons have been around, but we haven’t found mention of this support in this game or any others prior to this week.

With these add-on purchases on Amazon Luna, players of Devil May Cry 5 can purchase “Red Orbs” and “Blue Orbs” which are a sort of in-game currency that can be used to upgrade characters and unlock new skills. Effectively, they’re microtransactions with prices starting at $2.99. Notably, this seems to only be in place for this one game, as no other games we looked at on Luna showed support.

But what’s important to remember about add-on purchases on Amazon Luna is that players don’t actually own these games, and they’re subject to leave Luna at any time. This month alone over 50 games are set to leave Amazon Luna.

That said, Xbox Game Pass does the same thing, offering add-on purchases for games in a rotating library, but the difference there is that the purchase is linked to an account where you can still buy the full game, which isn’t available with Luna. We’ve reached out to Amazon Luna for clarification on the matter, though we expect refunds aren’t on the table in most cases. After all, these add-ons appear to be solely for in-game currency that is designed to be used up rather than game expansions/DLC.