Amazon is making his way to the world of gaming. On Thursday September 25, Amazon has revealed its own streaming video game service named “Amazon Luna”. It was during Amazon’s big device announcement event, the king of eCommerce business and internet giant ‘Amazon’, revealed its cloud based video game streaming service. It will be accessible on Fire TV, mobile phones, tablets and computers. A new and powerful rival to Microsoft’s xCloud and Google’s Stadia has arrived.
Cut to the Chase
Amazon Luna Platforms
A Fire TV, PC, iOS and Mac based services will be available with the launch. The Android version of the app will be available a bit later.
Amazon Luna will be running on Amazon’s AWS servers which is abbreviated as Amazon Web Services. It will help games to steam on 1080p resolution and will be providing 60 fps at launch with 4K support is teased as “Coming Soon”.
Amazon has also announced its partnership with Ubisoft in order to offer their own game streaming channel through Luna.You will be able to access some new games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6 on the day of release.
There will be a 30 days notice period for the early access to end. There are some early access games announced for Luna+ (Luna Plus). The list of the early access games:
- Resident Evil 7
- Control
- Panzer Dragoon
- A Plague Tale: Innocence
- The Surge 2
- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
- Iconoclasts
- GRID
- ABZU
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
The above list is not a complete one. The list show the games which are confirmed by Amazon to be available on Luna.
Compatibility
The compatibility for this service asks for some requirements. For PC, Windows 10 and DirectX 11 is highly recommended. For Mac, the OS version should be over 10.13. For Fire TV Stick, 2nd generation of Fire TV Stick or Fire TV Cube is required. Moreover, Chrome browser is considered more suitable for this service while using it on PC or Mac. For iOS devices, Safari browser is more than enough.
Amazon Luna Price
It is a subscription based service that will cost $5.99 (about 400 Rs.) per month as an invite only early access algorithm. They will also be selling the controller made for the service with early access pricing of $50. But it isn’t necessary to buy the new one as the Xbox One and PlayStation DualShock 4 controller as well as mouse and keyboard will be functioning perfectly well.
Twitch Integration
According to Amazon, the newly started cloud based gaming service will be integrated inside Twitch which is a huge name in gaming world. Twitch itself is a live streaming platform for gamers. Amazon claims that inside of Luna, players will be able to see Twitch streams of games. And from Twitch, they will have an easy access to the services of Luna.
You can join the service as soon as it arrives/ Amazon recommneds you to use a 5GHz WiFi connection for best experience. And the thing to note for limited internet data users, expect the consumption of data none less than 10 GB per hour at 1080p resolution.
As an early access member, you can also provide you feedback to improve the service further. The full version of the service has not mentioned a release date yet. But I will let you know soon so stay tuned.
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