When Amazon’s integer store launched successful 1994, it recovered itself astatine the forefront of integer commerce. There were precise fewer competitors successful the abstraction and Amazon was capable to carve retired a niche arsenic the premier online bookstore. Fast-forward respective decades and that precise aforesaid institution is giving crippled streaming a spell with Amazon Luna. But dissimilar 1994, Amazon present finds itself amidst a oversea of competitors from the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia.

Does Amazon Luna person what it takes to beryllium the adjacent large integer disruptor?

Amazon Luna – Catalog and Interface

The Luna storefront features a stripped-down interface that is mostly navigated by scrolling done enactment aft row. There’s a toolbar connected the left, which features buttons for showcased games, the library, games successful your playlist, a hunt function, a “Couch” fastener (more connected that later), a broadcast fastener for rapidly hopping into Twitch sessions, and Settings.

On a browser, however, the interface is conscionable a spot of a mess. From apical to bottom, you’ll spot 2 unrelated-to-Luna Amazon.com toolbars, then underneath each that, you’ll yet get astatine Luna’s curated content. Luna’s mobile app (or browser-based app successful the lawsuit of iOS) is rather a spot cleaner. While games are inactive packed into carousels and rows, each features big, colorful screen art.

Tapping into a crippled gives you options to rapidly commencement playing, adhd to a playlist (which functions arsenic a postulation of your favorites), oregon peruse trailers, screenshots, oregon adjacent streamers presently playing the game. You tin besides work a speedy Metacritic breakdown and spot much Luna games by the publisher.This is astir arsenic bully of a games leafage arsenic they travel – it’s robust and utile and I genuinely enjoyed clicking around, checking retired streamers who were playing each game, and watching a fewer trailers.

All Amazon Prime members tin entree a fistful of games for free. It’s a comparatively tiny group, though they bash rotate periodically. A erstwhile radical offered Overcooked 2, Mega Man 11, Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and Skatebird. At the clip of publishing, the radical was Steel Assault, Myst, Control, and Garfield Kart. Amazon’s intelligibly reasoning of this arsenic a cherry-on-top of Amazon Prime, alternatively than the benignant of slayer diagnostic that would person users dishing retired $14.99 a period to commencement subscribing.

Amazon besides wants users to bargain into a la carte “Channels” which big a thematic postulation of games. The main transmission is Luna+. It costs $9.99 a period and boasts a catalog of 120+ games, including standouts similar Ghostrunner: Complete Edition, Abzu, Control Ultimate Edition, Enter the Gungeon, and Super Mega Baseball 3.

Curiously, Amazon Studio’s ain games don’t marque the cut. Games similar Lost Ark and New World are wholly absent from Luna. This seems particularly damning erstwhile compared to Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is included with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription and features each of Microsoft’s immense first-party games line-up connected merchandise day.

The different large transmission is reserved for Ubisoft+, which features the big-name games from the studio, including Riders Republic, Far Cry 6: Ultimate Edition, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Complete Edition, and more. This transmission costs a whopping $17.99 a period but it’s not proprietary to Luna. Your $17.99 subscription besides allows you to play locally connected PC oregon watercourse connected Stadia. (Ubisoft+’s PC-only program costs a tad little astatine $14.99.)

There are a fewer different channels, including the Family Channel for $5.99 a month, the Retro Channel for $4.99 a month, and a Jackbox Games transmission for $4.99 a month. A immense bulk of these games are exclusive to their respective channels, which means to entree Luna’s full catalog of games, you’ll beryllium shelling retired $41/month connected apical of your Amazon Prime subscription.

But’s that a spot of a backward mode of reasoning astir it. In reality, galore users mightiness lone privation Jackbox Games – oregon to play games with the Family. And portion this review’s absorption isn’t connected those idiosyncratic channels’ corporate quality, it’s not hard to ideate idiosyncratic subscribing to thing similar the Jackbox transmission for an evening crippled night, oregon a household that conscionable wants to play Overcooked. For those usage cases, Amazon Luna’s ~$5 monthly prices are a downright steal.

Just truthful agelong arsenic you retrieve to cancel eventually.

Amazon Luna – Controller

Amazon besides sells a dedicated Luna controller. It works with Luna, but besides PC and a assortment of different platforms done Bluetooth. While it retails astatine $69.99, it’s often connected merchantability (It’s presently connected merchantability for $29.99).

I’ve tested a *lot* of controllers, and the Luna’s is beauteous decent. It’s 235.5g without batteries oregon 281.5g with its 2 AAs. That feels hefty successful the close mode and it’s precise adjacent successful value to the Xbox Series X controller. It features a USB-C larboard for charging and wired gameplay.

It looks and feels similar a premix betwixt a Switch Pro and Xbox controller. It’s subtly branded with a tiny gloss logo and purple sticks nether the thumbpad.

The triggers diagnostic an assertive swoop that makes them casual to compress and the buttons are surely “clickable” though they’re a spot connected the convex broadside for my liking. The D-Pad feels a small amateur, but my main beef is with the thumbpads, which diagnostic a heavy cupful with assertive knurling. They’re not wholly comfortable, due to the fact that they’re excessively tiny and excessively heavy for the pads of my thumbs to remainder successful unless I’m playing with the tops of my fingers.

But I inactive similar the controller, and that’s mostly owed to its intelligent Wi-Fi connection, which utilizes a work called Cloud Direct. After mounting the controller up with a abstracted app, your controller tin enactment connected to your Wi-Fi of choice, which makes switching betwixt devices an implicit cakewalk. The Luna controller inactive lets you usage a Bluetooth transportation for different compatible devices, but erstwhile you commencement playing connected Fire TV devices, it switches automatically to Cloud Direct.

Finally, erstwhile you’re truly successful a pinch you tin usage your telephone arsenic a controller. This is ne'er the preferable mode to play games, but Amazon has done a decent occupation packing features and settings into this mode, including configurable haptic feedback, swipeable buttons, and the quality to take betwixt Primary, Arcade, and Driving layouts. Unfortunately, you can’t resistance and driblet buttons to precisely wherever you privation them, but it’s inactive a bully diagnostic if you’re successful a pinch.

Amazon Luna – Bandwidth

Like each streaming services, Amazon Luna burns done a decent chunk of data. There are lone 2 video resolutions to take from: 1080p and 720p. 1080p volition usage an estimated 10GB of information an hour, portion 720p volition usage conscionable fractional that astatine 5GB an hour.

This mounting is configured connected a device-by-device basis, and whether you’re playing connected PC, Fire Stick, oregon a phone, the information estimates are the same.

Amazon Luna – Performance & Gaming

Before we spell into the nitty-gritty of streaming performance, it’s clip to item 1 of Amazon Luna’s coolest features: Luna Couch. With Luna Couch you tin play a fig of co-op games with friends, adjacent if they don’t person a Luna subscription. You commencement a game, click Luna Couch from the sidebar, and are issued a one-time code. Then, you tin substance your friends with the codification and they tin hop in.

It’s a stellar diagnostic and determination are presently 88 games that enactment it, including Lost Judgment, Killer Queen Black, Yakuza Zero, and Jackbox 1 done 8. If Luna has 1 slayer feature, this mightiness beryllium it. That is, provided your friends each person decent net connections. In practice, getting unneurotic a radical of friends that each person an net transportation susceptible of streaming games is simply a beauteous gangly task.

As is the lawsuit with each streaming services, your acquisition is predicated astir wholly connected the spot and velocity of your net connection. Amazon Luna requires astatine slightest 10 Mbps down to function, but successful practice, you’ll privation a batch much velocity and a unchangeable connection. My superior investigating happened connected a 2.4Ghz 358 Mbps down / 41 up connection. That’s of people much than accelerated enough, but I did announcement a spot of flakiness. On PC, that flakiness manifested successful drops successful graphic fidelity and audio corruption. It seldom had an effect connected gameplay, however, and I was capable to marque my mode done the hyperspeed gameplay of Ghostrunner and Enter the Gungeon with minimal problems.

But connected my Fire TV Stick 4K Max, I experienced much disruptive issues, including transportation drops and pauses. They’d hap momentarily astir each 10 minutes, which was usually anxiety-provoking but sometimes genuinely frustrating. It’s hard to wholly immerse yourself successful a crippled erstwhile you’re expecting thing to spell wrong. During a peculiarly tumultuous session, I got truthful bushed of being thrown retired successful Super Mega Baseball, that I enactment the controller down and walked away.

But nary substance however atrocious the existent streaming got, I ne'er felt similar I was experiencing latency from the controller – astatine slightest erstwhile it was connected with Cloud Direct. Even erstwhile the visuals started to stutter, I inactive felt similar my inputs were registering, and that made my wide acquisition consciousness amended than what I’ve experienced connected services similar Google Stadia.