Amazon Luna – Everything You Need to Know
Amazon Luna is joining the battle for the next great battlefield of gaming, taking Google Stadia and Xbox Cloud gaming heads on! Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon’s entry into the gaming industry to win it over.
Amazon has become more than just a virtual store to buy diapers for kids. The online store has branched out to streaming services under its “Prime” belt with Amazon Prime Video streaming, Prime Music, Audible for streaming your books to your ears, and so much more. The very first step time it stepped into the gaming industry, was by acquiring the game streaming platform Twitch. Naturally capitalizing on the potential of cloud gaming services like Google Stadia, Amazon has come up with Luna – a cloud gaming service to rival the likes of Stadia and Microsoft’s xCloud services.
Today, cloud gaming adoption is at a slow pace because it requires a stable and fast internet connection, along with plenty of processing firepower at multiple stages. Considering the less than stellar progress Stadia has seen since its launch last year, it will be interesting to see what Luna brings to the table when it comes out in October 2024. Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon Luna cloud gaming.
What is Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming?
Luna is a cloud gaming service offered by Amazon, which streams games right to your devices. Gamers who are worried about the games they love will take up a lot of space on their mobile device need not worry. Amazon Luna uses its AWS platform. Which means it is a subscription service based on Amazon Prime video streaming.
Games and Subscriptions Channels
Luna takes the cloud gaming service with the Amazon Prime Video subscription model spin, where players can choose their monthly gaming subscription pass by individual developers or third party streams like Ubisoft subscription channel or Luna+ with additional benefits. But, this model can be expensive in the long run, where the games you want to play might not be available on a single game channel, and might have to subscribe to multiple channels and won’t be able to use them to the fullest.
Currently, in the USA, with 5.99$ early access Luna+ game channel pricing, there are over more than 50 triple-A game titles and more game channels to come on release date with Ubisoft’s Assassin Creed Valhalla and many more.
Compatible Devices
The Luna cloud gaming service can be played on Amazon’s Fire TV compatible devices FireStick Gen 2, Mac (Safari browser and OSX 10.13 and newer), PC (Chrome and support with DirectX 11), and iOS/iPadOS devices with web apps. Android devices will soon be added to the compatible device roster of devices after the launch of the service. What makes Luna beneficiary to mobile gamers who want to experience PC gaming without the need to buy one is that they do not even require to download individual games on their mobile device.
Connectivity and Resolution
The recommended internet speed by Luna for 1080p/60fps smooth gaming is 10mbps and 35mbps for their upcoming 4k cloud gaming service. With the Luna+ game channel, you can use cloud gaming services with two devices and switch screens with the Luna Controller.
List of Games Available:
- GRID
- Tacoma
- Hard Reset Redux
- Atomik: RunGunJumpGun
- The Surge
- The Surge 2
- Control
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
- Abzu
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Indivisible
- Iconoclasts
- SteamWorld Dig
- SteamWorld Dig 2
- SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition
- SteamWorld Quest
- Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut
- Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse
- Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – Ultimate Edition
- Mighty Switch Force! Collection
- The Mummy Demastered
- River City Girls
- Tangledeep
- Blasphemous
- Yooka-Laylee
- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
- Yoku’s Island Express
- Redout: Solar Challenge Edition
- Rez Infinite
- Lumines Remastered
- Metro Exodus
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
- Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
- Wonder Boy: The Dragon Trap
- Sonic Mania Plus
- AO Tennis 2
- Valfaris
- RiME
- The Sexy Brutale
- Star Wars Pinball
- Infinite Minigolf
- Obduction
- Shadow Tactics
- Edna & Harvey: The Breakout – Anniversary Edition
- Deponia Doomsday
- Furi
- Ghost of a Tale
- Victor Vran: Overkill Edition
- R-Type Dimensions EX
- Edna & Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes
- Super Mega Baseball 3
- A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Castlevania Anniversary Collection
- Panzer Dragoon Remake
- Overcooked! 2
- BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
- Paper Beast
- Blazing Chrome
- Tennis World Tour 2
- DiRT Rally 2.0
- Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!
- CrossCode
- Everspace
- Contra Anniversary Collection
- Aragami
- XIII
- Resident Evil 7
- Sythentik: Legion Rising
- Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth
- Thimbleweed Park
- Goodbye Deponia
Luna Game Controller
Luna allows gamers to equip their choice of gaming inputs with Xbox Controller, DualShock 4, Bluetooth controllers, and a mouse and keyboard. But for having a smooth experience, Luna Controller directly connects to the cloud server for low latency and lag-free gaming and comes with Alexa built-in for quickly accessing your games with voice search and other Alexa commands. The Luna Controller is priced at 49.99 and can be purchased from the Amazon store.
Conclusion
Amazon’s independent cloud gaming Luna service may be the go-to choice for cloud gaming for folks who want to take their games on mobile devices with gaming channel subscriptions and web apps that won’t take up valuable mobile memory space on iOS and Android devices which xCloud and Stadia have not been able to figure out with Apple’s App Store policies. And for the couch gamers, the ability to switch screens on two devices, they can sweat out their intense gaming sessions on a potato PC and have a relaxing time with the family on the large screen playing games like Overcooked! 2.
Are you dead set on sticking to the traditional gaming machine where the hardware on your end does the processing, or would go give Amazon Luna a try? Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section down below.