Feast your eyes on Amazon Luna, a cloud gaming service that lets you play games using devices you already own, without the need for a console. Amazon Luna is similar to Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Remote Play – and US gamers can request early access right now.
Amazon Luna promises to give you games on your devices, including computers, phones, tablets and TVs. At launch, it will be available for PC, Mac, Fire TV, iPhone and iPad. It will come to Android "soon".
The new service launched alongside new Echo devices and new Fire TV Sticks, as Amazon gets its ducks in a row ahead of Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday.
There are no downloads or updates, pricey hardware (providing you already own a compatible device) or complicated configuration. So no need to worry about trying to pre-order a PS5 or Xbox Series X.
The Luna+ game channel will cost $5.99 a month for early access, and offer a range of games. These include action titles 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; and fan favorites like GRID, ABZU and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. More games will be added over time.
It lets you play on two devices simultaneously, so you can start on one and pick up where you left off on another. Some games will also display in 4K at 60fps.
Games studio Ubisoft will have its own channel available through Luna. This will offer the same service but exclusively for Ubisoft games. It's not clear how much this channel will cost – we've asked Amazon for clarification. More games studios are said to be following Ubisoft with their own Luna channels.
It's also compatible with the Amazon-owned games streaming service Twitch. From Luna, you'll see Twitch streams for games available through Luna, and you'll be able to start playing Luna games directly from within Twitch.
There's a new controller too. Luna Controller has Alexa onboard for voice controls, and it connects straight to the cloud for low-lag respondency. Because it connects to cloud servers, you can switch between devices you game on without having to pair the controller again. It will cost $49.99 during the early access period, and more after that.
The whole platform is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is Amazon's cloud arm. AWS powers much of the web's cloud storage.
There's no word on when the early access period will expire, nor when we can expect Luna to roll out to more markets beyond the US.
Luna was announced as part of Amazon's Echo event, at which it also unveiled a host of new Echo and Ring devices and new Fire TV sticks.
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