Amazon Luna is finally coming to the UK
Can Amazon’s cloud gaming service succeed where Google Stadia failed?
Amazon’s cloud gaming service, Luna, is now available in the UK. In a surprise announcement held on 22 March, the company announced that its GeForce Now rival is finally breaking out from the US and Canada after a two-year wait.
Launching as part of a tiered subscription service, Luna can stream games directly to your Fire TV Stick, Fire TV, Windows/Mac machine or your smartphone from the cloud over your home Wi-Fi network. Vaguely, Amazon says that the games are of a “console-like” quality, with reduced streaming latency courtesy of its AWS infrastructure.
Prime members can stream a selection of Luna titles at no additional cost. This is the entry-level tier, with a rotating monthly list of five or six games. For its first month, Amazon has included Mega Man 11 from Capcom, with Jackbox Party Pack 3 coming in May. However, when the month ends, you lose access to these titles.
That is, unless you sign up for the premium tier. Luna Plus costs £8.99 a month and grants access to the full library of Luna games to play whenever you want. Games include Beach Buggy Racing 2: Hot Wheels Edition, Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and Resident Evil 2.
There are a couple of publisher-specific tiers you can subscribe to as well. Ubisoft’s subscription service, Ubisoft+ Multi Access is available to stream on Luna, and this includes the company’s AAA games lineup such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s The Division. This costs £14.99 a month.
Finally, we have the Jackbox Games subscription, which allows you to stream games such as Quiplash, Trivia Murder Party and Drawful for £3.99 a month.
Being an Amazon product, there’s deep integration with its Twitch streaming platform on Luna as well. You can broadcast your gameplay directly to your Twitch channel, using your phone as a webcam, or view other Twitch streams to help with a tricky section of the game you’re currently playing.
A feature called Luna Couch allows you to play co-op games like Overcooked! and Death Squared with a friend online with just one Luna subscription. There’s also the Luna Controller, which from the looks of things is the same gamepad as the one launched in the US two years ago. This costs £60 but you won’t need to buy one to play these games, with Luna supporting third-party controllers and touch controls.
Amazon Luna is available right now and we will be reviewing the service in the near future.