Amazon finally has a game streaming service. It’s been rumoured for years now and it’s finally here. Starting at $US6 ($9) a month with early access, the new service will have Twitch integration, a special channel just for Ubisoft games, and an optional controller that connects directly to the cloud.
Amazon’s cloud gaming service wasn’t a possibility as much an inevitability. Like Google and Microsoft Amazon has an enormous cloud computing infrastructure, AWS, so moving from cloud computing to gaming was a no-brainer. But while Microsoft has built a great cloud gaming system, Google’s Stadia has struggled to woo developers. Amazon’s system may have similar issues, but is launching with well-known games including Control, Metro Exodus, and Sonic Mania.
There will also be a whole channel dedicated to Ubisoft games with day and date releases of upcoming games like Assassin’s Creed: Vahalla and Far Cry 6.
While the Amazon announcement wasn’t full of details, it does look like that service will be available on mobile devices (likely just Android for now) and Amazon Fire devices, including the new Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Luna+ is $US6 ($9) a month, but if you really want to take advanatge of the new service you’ll want to invest in the $US50 ($71) controller which amazon claims “removes latency” by connecting directly with AWS. Amazon claims that when playing games streamed from a Fire TV Stick the Luna controller has 20ms less latency than a standard Bluetooth controller paired with the Fire TV.
Naturally Twitch will also be integrated with the service, though again details were scarce. You can assume it will be similar to Stadia’s integration with Youtube which lets viewers directly access games streamers are playing and sometimes even interact with the games being streamed directly.
This story is developing…
Editor’s Note: Luna does not appear to be available for Australians just yet. Stay tuned for more news.