We can hear a certain public here screaming heresy because Amazon dared to put forward a person with an undefined gender (and with blue hair, what’s more!) for its communication campaign. And we admit that it amuse us quite a bit. The photo actually shows Amazon Luna’s core target: consumers who do not want to “have the hassle” of owning a games console or a PC solution to enjoy a game catalog video.
Aiming to be as versatile as possible, Amazon Luna is available on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, LG and Samsung smart-TVs, and Fire TV. The service is therefore accessible on almost all imaginable media: TV, PC, smartphone, tablet and tutti quanti. To benefit from it, simply at a minimum a Prime subscription and a compatible peripheral: DualShock PS4, Xbox One controller or a keyboard-mouse combo. What about the Dualsense PS5 or the Xbox Series controller? Well Luna is not yet compatible with these little wonders. Note that it is possible to buy the official Luna controller for €69.99 (at €39.99 until November 27 thanks to an introductory offer).
Hijo de la Luna
The model adopted by Amazon Luna is hybrid: it allows access to a catalog of free games for Amazon Prime members, or to subscribe to third-party subscription services in order to increase the number of games offered. The basic offer for Prime members only offers seven titles: Fortnite, Trackmania, Encodeya, Qube, Tiny Lands, Ride 4 And Get Packed: Couch Chaos. A very limited offer, which is only there to encourage you to put your hand in your wallet and subscribe to additional services: Luna + (€9.99 per month), Ubisoft + (€17.99 per month) and Jackbox Games (€4.99). By adding up the number of games offered by these supplements, we reach 227 games (retro or modern, Earthworm Jim has AC Mirage) available on Amazon Luna, for the sum of €32.97… A very steep note. In addition to the subscription possibilities, it is also possible to purchase titles electronically.
Since its launch in 2020 in the United States, Luna has struggled to convince. Model not really clear for the general public, prohibitive price compared to the competition (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at €14.99/month, €16.99 for PlayStation Plus Premium, and no additional cost for Netflix subscribers to play games of their catalog), and no exclusivity on the horizon… Luna has no real selling points at the moment, despite a solid technical backbone, based on Nvidia T4 GPUs, which ensures streaming in 1080p/60fps (4K would be in the pipeline). According to the latest news, at the end of 2021 only 270,000 curious people would have subscribed to the Luna service.
There is no doubt that the number of Luna subscribers will have increased since this data. However, while today Game Pass has 36 million subscribers, Netflix boasts the number of 2.2 million daily users for its gaming service (thank you Apptopia) and we find more than 48 million players on the PS+, what room for maneuver could Luna have?
It’s difficult to clearly discern Amazon’s strategy when it comes to the video game industry. Between the Prime Gaming program and its free monthly games, game design and distribution (New World, Lost Ark, Blue Protocol), and Luna, it is impossible to deny Amazon’s desire for its share of the pie in our lucrative industry. However, it is impossible for us to get rid of the impression of being faced with a ship that is sailing by sight. Worse still, there floats around Luna the same scent of a project that is heading straight into the wall, as if no one had learned the lessons of the failure of Google Stadia.
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