Amazon Luna Is Here to Give You a New Cloud Gaming Service That's Console-Free
Last year, Amazon made an announcement that it would soon be entering the gaming fray with a bang. Enter Luna, a new cloud gaming service from the e-commerce giant.
The allure lies in Luna's lack of barriers to entry. There's no need to purchase an expensive console for hundreds of dollars upfront, and no time-consuming downloads or updates. All you need is a solid wireless connection, some sort of screen, and a subscription. Simply sign up, stream your favorite games right to your devices, and seamlessly switch between them thanks to the cloud.
Luna is only available by invitation at the moment, which likely means gamers and serious Twitch users are the first to gain access. (You can try to land an invite by filling out the request form here).
Here's the lowdown on Luna's price, availability, and specs. Keep scrolling for an overview of how cloud gaming works, what makes Luna stand out from other services, and how to ensure your internet connection is prepped and primed for this new-age gaming service.
🎮 How much does Luna cost?
It costs $5.99/month for early access and $14.99/month for beta access through Ubisoft+.
🎮 Which devices can I play on?
You can access Luna through your Fire TV, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and select Android devices.
🎮 How many devices can I play on at once?
For now, you can use two screens simultaneously.
🎮 What games can I access?
You'll be able to play action games, like Resident Evil 7, Control, and Panzer Dragoon, adventure games like A Plague Tale: Innocence and The Surge 2, platformers like Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair and Iconoclasts, plus fan favorites like GRID, ABZU and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
🎮 What kind of resolution can I get?
You can get 4K/60 fps for select titles.
What Is Cloud Gaming?
Traditionally, if you have a game on one console, you can't seamlessly pick it up and play it on another device—that goes for the SEGA Genesis in the 1990s, your Nintendo DS in the early 2000s, and for the Nintendo Switch in your living room today.
Cloud gaming is distinctive from that brand of console gaming in that you can start playing a title on one screen and then pick up right where you left off on another device. So in theory, you could start playing Sonic the Hedgehog on your PC and then pick up on the same level right on your iPhone.
In console gaming, you typically must decide whether you'd like to purchase a game in a hard copy format, like a disc or a cartridge, or whether you'd prefer to buy a digital download. In both cases, you ultimately run the game locally on your system's hardware.
By contrast, cloud gaming allows you to circumvent the game installation and physical hardware by running your games on remote servers that stream the content to your device of choice—just like streaming your favorite movie on HBO Max or Netflix, rather than busting out the dusty old DVD disc.
Luna isn't alone in this space. Last year, Microsoft launched a limited preview of its own "Netflix for games" platform, Project xCloud. Following that trial, Microsoft made about 100 Xbox games available to play on Android smartphones and tablets with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which costs $14.99 per month.
But the most comparable service is Stadia, Google's cloud gaming platform that launched back in 2019. It's free to use and you gain access to two free games and a one-month trial of Stadia Pro, which regularly costs $9.99 per month.
Your Internet Connection Matters
With content constantly streamed to your device, however, a healthy internet connection isn't just a nicety—it's a necessary standard. Amazon recommends using a connection that runs at a minimum of 10 megabits per second (Mbps). Luckily, the average speed in the U.S. is about 50 Mbps, but you'll still want to check yours.
To do so, simply visit Speedtest.net and click the "Go" button. You'll see a breakdown of both your upload and download speeds. As an example, here's what ours looked like during a test:
While speed may not be an issue for most people with access to superior broadband, consumption is still a concern. Most data plans, whether they're cell phone plans or wireless internet plans, come with a cap. Just this month, lawmakers blasted Comcast for its new 1.2 terabyte monthly data limit on Xfinity, saying it's poor timing, as many families are at home all day due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Introducing a data cap to your customers during a pandemic where many people's livelihoods have moved online (including ours) very cool @Xfinity pic.twitter.com/H04zKyMqdv
— Doug🎶🥁🎮Perry (@DrumUltimA) January 22, 2021
For context, a single hour playing on the Luna platform could use up to 10 GB of data per hour, says a review from Destructoid:
According to Luna, the standard option might use up to 10GB per hour. To put that into perspective, playing through Control could eat up approximately 110GB of data going by HowLongToBeat.com's estimation of an 11.5-hour runtime. 110GB would be nearly 1/4 of my monthly data cap, and that's for a relatively short game. The title itself is 80GB if I were to download it directly to one of my consoles.
If you don't know what your data cap limit is, or how much data you're currently using each month, it may be worthwhile to do a simple audit of your usage before purchasing any cloud gaming subscription, including Luna.
Why Luna?
Amazon is at the heart of Luna, which is certainly a good thing when you consider the entire service is reliant on the cloud. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the largest providers of cloud computing, meaning it has an unfathomable number of servers across the world. In other words, your streaming connection is in good hands—even Netflix uses AWS, so it's safe to say Luna can meet and exceed that level of performance.
Beyond that, one of Luna's greatest selling points is its close integration with Twitch, the video game streaming platform that Amazon acquired back in 2014. Per Luna's landing page on Amazon, you can "watch popular Twitch streams directly from Luna and go from watching Twitch to instantly playing on Luna."
Luna also has a companion controller that might make gameplay more satisfying. A keyboard and mouse or a third-party gaming controller are perfectly suitable, but if you'd like to test out the Luna Controller, you'll benefit from features like Alexa compatibility, low-latency gaming, and the ability to switch connectivity between devices, thanks to its connection to AWS cloud servers.
And then there are the publishing channels that Amazon has in the works for Luna. At the moment, you can subscribe to the basic Luna+ library for $5.99/month to access a limited game library. However, Amazon also has the option to sign up with Ubisoft+ to gain access to that publisher's library of games, including titles like Assassins Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Immortals Fenyx Rising.
According to a press release, this is "the first of multiple Luna game channels in development, where customers can play games from their favorite publishers and genres." So if your favorite game studio comes out with a Luna channel, it may be worth it to try it out for a month.
The Luna+ game selection stands at just 67 titles for now, according to the Destructoid review. That's better than Stadia's lineup at launch, which only included 22 titles, but it's still not great. The good news? Stadia has since padded out its lineup, and it looks like Luna will over time as well.
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