Luna is a cloud gaming service offered by Amazon. Announced September 24, 2020, and is the company's entry into a space that already contains major players like Stadia, GeForce NOW, Shadow, and Cloud Gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Amazon was rumored to be entering the cloud gaming space last year, but little was known at the time. Now, more details have been shared about it. This includes how much it costs, what games you can play, and where you can play them.
There are still many things about Luna that are changed or added by Amazon. but now it is possible to use this service. The idea is to offer people a slightly different model for cloud gaming from what's currently available from competitors. Luna will offer a variety of different games from publishers you know and love. Some of them will be new and some of them will be a little older.
The point of Luna, like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Stadia, is that you don't have to download games. No need to wait for the game to install. You simply find the game you want to play and you launch it. Explosion. Finished.
If that sounds interesting to you, you might want to consider keeping an eye on Luna and signing up to request access to it.
As Amazon says, Luna has something for everyone when it comes to gaming. For any game available, there are quite a few variations of the title. You'll get some of the greatest games of recent years as well as some old favorites. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard – Gold Edition for example is available for streaming.
There have also been new titles added such as Immortals Fenyx Rising, Ride 4, Far Cry New Dawn Deluxe Edition, and even Ghostrunner. You can also find Abzu, Everspace, Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom, Bloodstained Ritual of The Night, and Ys VIII: Lacrimosa Of Dana. All of this is located on the Luna+ channel. Some of these are also titles that have been added to Stadia over the last few months.
The newest games to be added to Luna are game services for June, which include Yakuza 0, The Falconeer, and Black Slayer Queen. Amazon has also announced the upcoming July Games, which include DiRT 5, Valkyria Chronicles 4 Complete Edition, and Saints Row: The Third – Remastered.
So many of the games you see on Luna will be available through other cloud gaming options.
Besides the Luna+ Channel, there's also the Ubisoft+ channel, which as you might expect is filled with lots of different Ubisoft games. Far Cry New Dawn, The Division, The Division 2, and Watch Dogs are just a few of the options available. But there are also some fairly new titles like Immortals Fenyx Rising (mentioned above), and Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
As Luna grows, more channels will likely be added as well. Even though at this time Amazon has not shared anything specific. But it makes sense that as long as all goes well, Amazon will add more partners to events and channels for those that only contain their games. Access to this will also incur additional costs as will the Ubisoft+ channel.
What devices can I play on?
The great thing about Amazon here is that it lets you play games on the devices you already own. It will be limited at first, but will hopefully start to expand soon.
Now open to multiple players, you'll be able to access it on your Fire TV (TV or any device that has a Fire TV), Mac, iOS via the web app, and PC. The service is now also available on Android devices, which Amazon just launched in December 2020.
How do I get access to the service?
The service is available for an introductory $5.99 per month during the current beta period. This is also a fee since early access started in 2020.
Since it's only a beta price, it might cost more when it's fully launched. If it is open to everyone and not just those invited.
This is also a charge for the Luna+ channel only. If you wish to access the Ubisoft+ channel, you will be charged $14.99 per month for access. However, you don't have to subscribe to either one. You can choose to subscribe to the Luna+ channel or the Ubisoft+ channel. You can subscribe to both if you want. Then, have more games to play.
What controllers work with this service?
Amazon supports several different controllers since the service goes into early access. These include the Luna controller, Xbox One wireless controller, and DualShock 4.
You can also use the mouse and keyboard if you are playing games on your PC. Which may be the preferred input method for some.
No doubt there will be more compatible controllers, but at first, Amazon started small with the most popular and most used controller out there. And that makes sense.
Now, that doesn't mean other controllers won't work. They may. But Amazon doesn't list anything else as officially supported. So anything other than what is mentioned here may not work at all.
What features does Luna have?
You may be surprised at what is available. Then again maybe not. Since it belongs to Amazon, it naturally has integration with Alexa.
You can ask Alexa to play a game and it will launch the game you mentioned. Not like what Google did with Stadia and Google Assistant. Luna also has integration with Twitch. Another brand belongs to Amazon.
You can watch Twitch live streams on Luna, then from those streams, it launches itself into games on the service.
What kind of resolution does Luna support?
Amazon says that the service will support resolutions up to 1080p for most games.
Some games will support up to 4K, but none are currently available on the service. Amazon says 4K is coming soon, so this is expected to come after the beta period is over. Currently, you can choose to play the game at 720p or 1080p. This can be changed in the settings menu once you log into Luna.
What internet speed do I need?
The recommended internet speed is 10Mbps for your download speed for everything streaming at 1080p.
If you're going to be streaming in 4K, which isn't currently available and probably won't be available during the beta period, you'll need a download of at least 35Mbps.
As always, the faster and stronger your internet connection, the better your streaming experience will be. So keep that in mind. Also, note that streaming in higher quality will consume more internet bandwidth.
Currently, running games at 1080p will cost you around 10GB per hour according to Amazon. And about half that, if you stream the game at 720p.