Nearly a year after Google Stadia’s debut, the rumors of Amazon’s competitor have come true. Amazon “Luna” is the company’s new cloud-gaming service, coming soon.
Amazon Luna is a game streaming service essentially identical to Google Stadia. It streams games from the cloud to apps on PC, Mac, Fire TV, and interestingly, even to iPhone/iPad through special web apps. An Android version will also arrive after launch. Yeah, that’s bizarre.
When Luna makes it debut, it’ll arrive with “over 100” games including titles such as Control, GRID, Abzu, Panzer Dragon, Sonic Mania, Metro Exodus, Overcooked 2, Rime, and many others. Ubisoft will also be offering its own “channel” on Luna that will bring major titles such as Assassins Creed Valhalla, Fenyx Rising, and others.
It’s unclear how much the Ubisoft component will cost, but the “introductory” price for Luna+ will be $5.99/month with unlimited gameplay, access to all games, and 1080p/60fps gameplay.
Like Stadia, too, Amazon Luna will offer its own controller. That controller skips the latency of Bluetooth or a local connection and goes straight to Amazon’s servers, apparently reducing latency by up to 17-30 milliseconds. The controller can also switch between devices without re-pairing. The Luna Controller will cost $49.99 during Early Access.
Amazon Luna will, of course, also have integration with Twitch. Streamers will be able to stream their games to Twitch and viewers will be able to join in on the games with just a click.
Looking at this announcement from the perspective of a Stadia player, it’s hard not to be impressed. Amazon hit almost all of the right notes and, crucially, doesn’t seem to be botching the launch in ways Google so clearly did. It doesn’t seem like there are many big promises that Amazon could fall on its sword on, and the game library is strong out of the gate. Most importantly, Amazon is launching Luna in Early Access. That means any of the platform’s shortcomings will likely be readily forgiven by players.
As mentioned, it’s unclear when Luna will make its debut, but it’s certainly an exciting reveal. You can sign up for Early Access now.
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