Wednesday, March 22nd 2023
Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming Service Reaches Canada, Germany and UK
Amazon is today expanding its Luna cloud gaming service into three new territories - Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. This is the first sign of the online retail giant's goal to broaden the service beyond the initial launch base in the USA. The company is clearly excited to offer their cloud games library to a larger customer base: "Gamers in the U.S. have been enjoying Luna for the past year and we're thrilled to expand the service, giving more customers the opportunity to play high-quality, immersive games without expensive gaming hardware or lengthy downloads."
These new territories have been granted access to Luna's full package which now consists of Ubisoft+, Jackbox Games, and Luna+ subscription services. The Luna app can be launched on 'select devices', which means a wide range of modern bits of kit can run it: Fire TV, Fire Tablets, Windows PCs, Chromebooks, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets. Amazon confirmed that its Official Luna Wireless Controller is also being made available to customers in Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom - which is an exclusive item to the Amazon Store. It should be noted that you can run other compatible control devices via Bluetooth, including a wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as the Xbox One and PlayStation DualShock 4 gamepads.Amazon Prime subscribers are granted a complimentary set of games every month - Megaman 11 and Trails from Zero are two of the titles added in for the March 2023 lineup. There have been setbacks though, with the most vaunted service on the platform, Luna+, losing 43 titles from its library in December 2022, soon followed by 53 more in February of this year. The Yakuza and No More Heroes series were the most notable removals.Amazon Luna has cloud gaming service rivals in the form of NVIDIA's GeForce Now and Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass. Google Stadia was shuttered early on in 2023 after years of struggling to meet its parent company's expectations. Luna's expansion into new territories could be seen as an attempt to hoover up former Stadia customers, but it is safe to bet that there are plenty of existing Amazon customers who could be attracted to cloud gaming within a familiar online service eco-system.
Sources:
Games Industry Biz, Amazon Luna Twitter Account
These new territories have been granted access to Luna's full package which now consists of Ubisoft+, Jackbox Games, and Luna+ subscription services. The Luna app can be launched on 'select devices', which means a wide range of modern bits of kit can run it: Fire TV, Fire Tablets, Windows PCs, Chromebooks, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets. Amazon confirmed that its Official Luna Wireless Controller is also being made available to customers in Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom - which is an exclusive item to the Amazon Store. It should be noted that you can run other compatible control devices via Bluetooth, including a wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as the Xbox One and PlayStation DualShock 4 gamepads.Amazon Prime subscribers are granted a complimentary set of games every month - Megaman 11 and Trails from Zero are two of the titles added in for the March 2023 lineup. There have been setbacks though, with the most vaunted service on the platform, Luna+, losing 43 titles from its library in December 2022, soon followed by 53 more in February of this year. The Yakuza and No More Heroes series were the most notable removals.Amazon Luna has cloud gaming service rivals in the form of NVIDIA's GeForce Now and Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass. Google Stadia was shuttered early on in 2023 after years of struggling to meet its parent company's expectations. Luna's expansion into new territories could be seen as an attempt to hoover up former Stadia customers, but it is safe to bet that there are plenty of existing Amazon customers who could be attracted to cloud gaming within a familiar online service eco-system.
3 Comments on Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming Service Reaches Canada, Germany and UK
GeForce NOW gives you cloud access to (some of) the games you already own. Nvidia isn’t giving users access to extra titles. It is not an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The basic monthly subscription mostly lifts the short play duration of the free service.
Luna is closer to the Xbox cloud offering.