Amazon Announces Stadia Competitor: Luna

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

www.theverge.com/2020/9/24/21451371/amazon-luna-cloud-gaming-service-twitch-alexa-controller

At its 2020 hardware event today, Amazon announced a cloud gaming platform called Luna. The news isn’t too surprising: the service has been rumored since last year, previously codenamed “Tempo,” while an Amazon-made game controller leaked out just ahead of today’s event.

It’s not clear when Luna will launch widely, but it will initially be available on PC, Mac, Fire TV, and iPhone and iPad (via web apps), with an Android version planned for after launch. Amazon says that interested users in the US can request early access to the service starting today. There’s no word on international availability.

The service will be available for an “introductory price” of $5.99 a month during its early access phase, which gives subscribers the ability to play Luna Plus channel games across two devices simultaneously and offers 4K / 60fps resolution for “select titles.” Naturally, it will be powered by AWS, Amazon’s ubiquitous web platform.

[eJm]

Honestly, this feels like what I thought Stadia was going to be before it became...what it was.

Like, they do need to announce some games for it or at least some deals in place but not a bad start, really.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

Stadia is competing with Tiger Handhelds at this point

[Spider2024]

Sept 24, 2020 13:31:15 GMT -5 Confused Mark Wahlberg said:

Stadia is competing with Tiger Handhelds at this point

I'd rather play an Ouya.

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2020 13:33:42 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

Sept 24, 2020 13:31:15 GMT -5 Confused Mark Wahlberg said:

Stadia is competing with Tiger Handhelds at this point

I'd rather play an Ouya.

Shouldn't we be getting the sequel to the Gizmondo by now?

[eJm]

Sept 24, 2020 13:33:42 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

Sept 24, 2020 13:31:15 GMT -5 Confused Mark Wahlberg said:

Stadia is competing with Tiger Handhelds at this point

I'd rather play an Ouya.

I have an OnLive console that I got for free, never worked when I tried it and was shut down years ago so it’s a glorified paperweight.

I’d rather play that than Stadia.

[A Platypus Rave]

So this is going to actually be the NEtflix for video games that Stadia tried to hype itself up as but was in no way like that?

As long as the publishers are on board this has legs.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Sept 24, 2020 13:33:42 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

Sept 24, 2020 13:31:15 GMT -5 Confused Mark Wahlberg said:

Stadia is competing with Tiger Handhelds at this point

I'd rather play an Ouya.

The Ouya is a great system for emulation. Cheaper and easier to set up than a Raspberry Pi.

[BorneAgain]

Good to see that they spent a good 10 seconds on the design of the controller.



"The Switch Pro Controller but purple" is the kind of creativity you can only get from Amazon.

[Cyno]

Sept 24, 2020 15:34:23 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

Good to see that they spent a good 10 seconds on the design of the controller.



"The Switch Pro Controller but purple" is the kind of creativity you can only get from Amazon.

Let's be real: the Switch Pro controller is basically an Xbox One controller. Nintendo certainly didn't win any originality points with that one, lol.

Anyway, I don't have much interest in giving more money to Lord Bezos, but I did appreciate seeing Bloodstained as one of the games on the mockup UI screens.

[Brandon Walsh is Insane.]

Sept 24, 2020 15:34:23 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

Good to see that they spent a good 10 seconds on the design of the controller.



"The Switch Pro Controller but purple" is the kind of creativity you can only get from Amazon.

I was thinking this was a XBOX 360 Controller.

[Convoy]

Has anyone tried this in the last year? They've put out a cheaper family plan, and announced a retro arcade plan is coming, but the only feedback of note I've heard is "well, it's better than Stadia" which I guess is a positive.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Looking around at the lineup for this it feels like an utterly useless service. Not as much so as Stadia but there are barely any games there and more of them are or have previously been readily available on Gamepass or PS Now and tend to run pretty cheap anyway.