With Luna, Amazon announced its entry into the video game streaming service world on Thursday during its September event.
Like Google’s Stadia, Luna’s games will run on Amazon’s servers and stream to an iPhone, iPad computer, or TV through Amazon’s Fire TV Stick.
Luna’s ability to run via a web app on iPhone and iPad sets the service apart from other competitors. Google Stadia and cloud streaming via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate are unavailable on iOS. While Apple’s ecosystem is currently the only mobile option, an Android app is expected at a later date. Customers can request early access beginning Thursday.
Luna will offer gaming channels, which offer libraries of games. Only Luna+, which costs $6 a month, is available at launch, but others, including one from Ubisoft, will be added later. Ubisoft’s gaming channel will give players Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Immortals Fenyx Rising, as well as launch day access. Amazon has not yet said how much other gaming channels will cost or if they can be purchased without Luna+.
The Luna+ library of games will grow, according to Amazon, but the following have been confirmed at launch:
- Control
- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
- Sonic Mania
- Resident Evil VII
- Panzer Dragoon
- A Play Tale: Innocence
- The Surge 2
- Iconoclasts
- GRID
- ABZU
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Select titles will be available in 4K 60 FPS, and subscribers can have up to two simultaneous streams.
Similarly to Stadia, Amazon will release a Luna controller that connects directly to its servers to reduce latency during gameplay, with up to 30 milliseconds of improvement compared to pairing with DualShock 4 or Xbox wireless controller. During the early access period, the Luna controller will be available for $50.
Since Amazon owns Twitch, the content streaming service will be integrated directly into Luna, and vice versa. While playing, gamers can access Twitch streams of the game they are enjoying, and on Twitch, viewers start playing the games being streamed.
Currently, early access is only available to those in the United States, and it seems that the pricing for the Luna+ channel and Luna controller may be temporary for this phase of testing
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