I'm not sure I would get back on one of these. I used OnLive back in the day, but now I can't play those games any more. It was a subscription with lock-in, and now that it's out of business I can't even choose to be locked in.<p>Now, I have recently started playing on GeForce NOW, nVidia's offering. However there it's much closer to an EC2 model: I'm renting a machine, and I log into my Steam profile and play games that I purchased there. If I want to move that to my own PC, I can. I like that pattern much more.
The price looks really good compared to Stadia, and being able to use a dirt cheap Fire Stick that many already have instead of a $100 hardware investment is a huge plus. To really drive adoption they could cut the price of the controller and make some games available for Prime members.<p>That said, I think there's a tendency to pooh-pooh the "gamer" concerns about streaming far too much in the rush to declare that the state of technology couldn't possibly be an obstacle to launching a product. Just from this year two of the most popular games with non-gamer audiences were a samurai adventure that sells itself on its HDR visuals that wouldn't look so great compressed (Ghost of Tsushima) and a party game where you wouldn't need to be a stereotypical FPS gamer to notice and be infuriated by relatively small amounts of input lag (Fall Guys). Yes, people who don't play games all the time will be less demanding, but don't forget we're still talking about them playing games.
The Venn diagram for target audience and situational use cases of these services has always seemed very small to me.<p>At least the subscription model and game selection seems better than Stadia.<p>edit: Also, it seems to me like the target audience is for the same sort (and I’m not trying to denigrate) that watch movies on their TV with internal speakers or can’t fathom why you’d pay more than 30 bucks for headphones or earbuds. Some people just don’t care about the latency, hiccups, or compression artifacts. And that’s fine, but I’m not part of that group.
Apple modified Safari so that Amazon was able to launch Luna on iOS:<p>> <i>“We worked with the Safari team to ensure that some of the things that weren't there are there, and that allowed us to kind of get to where we are today,” Luna head of engineering and technology George Tsipolitis said.</i><p><a href="https://www.engadget.com/luna-amazon-cloud-gaming-interview-pwa-apple-173948922.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.engadget.com/luna-amazon-cloud-gaming-interview-...</a>
Has anyone tried a Stadia before? I've remained doubtful about game streaming because it seems like the latency is such a hard problem to overcome. In any game that requires even a bit of precision and fast reaction, 30-100ms of latency can feel pretty bad.<p>Seems to me like the only way this could possibly work is if the games are designed with streaming in mind, but even then it seems hard... Remote Desktop in Windows, for example, feels laggy even on LAN (connecting to another computer in the same house).
This feels like an appropriate place to rant on something that’s been bothering me for a while.<p>It’s really disappointing to me to see every single form of entertainment becoming a subscription service. It’s also the same problem you see with various apps/software trying the SaaS model, even when it doesn’t make sense.<p>Are we going to have exclusive games requiring multiple subscriptions to enjoy the content you want? Will we move away from being able to purchase games to run them locally?<p>Moreover, if Games as a Service (GaaS) becomes the de facto way to release games, is it going to encourage longer titles with lots of grinding/farming to ensure people stay engaged for months at a time? Will it slowly kill off sub-20h, more story-focused experiences that can be completed in a fraction of one month’s subscription price?<p>Also, it really bothers me to see that almost every single one of the FAANGs feels the need hop on the bandwagon. First it was music streaming, then movies/TVs, and now it looks like gaming is next. You can argue that competition is good but really we just have exclusive content siloed across various services and priced in such a way that likely only the large tech companies can subside it with their other offerings (e.g., ad revenue or premium phone sales).
This was always Amazon's play with Twitch. Amazon will be able to make a much more compelling attempt at the market than Google with Stadia.<p>I <i>still</i> worry about these streaming platforms. Ease of use goes up, but it turns the industry into a subscription economy.<p>Maybe attention fulfillment maps better to subscription than to purchase, as there's less buyer's remorse? I still don't like it.
Does anyone know the basic tech stack behind Luna? This landing page doesn't mention anything, and I'm dying to know if they're also going the Linux and Vulkan route of Stadia.
Since it hasn't been posted here, it looks like amazon have "productised" AppStream[0] and added a subscription based model a-la prime video.<p>Interesting that they positioned it as a new product and not a prime offering, as increasing prime subs was always one of amazon's main drives recently (keep spinning that flywheel).<p>They had a similar streaming integration with their games engine lumberyard[1] iirc, and used it for some of their first party titles[2] though as far as I remember, none of their first party games have taken off.<p>Interestingly, in googling I found there is a "prime gaming"[3] option that amazon has, so I'm surprised this offering wasn't folded into that. Maybe the low uptake of prime gaming means they need to position it as a separate service to get press for it, or maybe the increased cost to serve can't be justified without charging an additional subscription.<p>[0] <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/appstream2/?blog-posts-cards.sort-by=item.additionalFields.createdDate&blog-posts-cards.sort-order=desc" rel="nofollow">https://aws.amazon.com/appstream2/?blog-posts-cards.sort-by=...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/" rel="nofollow">https://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.amazongames.com/en-gb/games" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazongames.com/en-gb/games</a><p>[3] <a href="https://gaming.amazon.com/" rel="nofollow">https://gaming.amazon.com/</a>
Interesting. Disregarding my issues with Amazon as a company, on paper this looks like a better system then Google's Stadia, by actually having a netflix style access games for a monthly fee that I think most people expected Stadia to do.
The latency metric seems baked. As a long time PC FPS player where latency is king, I'd like to know if there is a real advantage versus USB or 2.4/5ghz dongle and a PC/console connected to the streaming server. I'm imagining a lot of thought went toward the back end architecture for the service and will definitely be giving it a go. Was not impressed by Google's attempt. If the latency issues with streamed games can be overcome through a direct device connection to streamlined infrastructure at Amazon, something like what Riot has done on their backend for League and Valorant, then it would be a real game changer (haha) for these services.<p>The power to be had offloading rendering could totally kill console and PC one day just from a technical angle. Imagining a Pixar like experience coming soon, straight from AWS. Can a home PC or console ever compete with a render farm?
Ubisoft obviously has some kind of special deal to be able to sell their own subscription “coming soon”, does anyone know what the profit share for game developers is for this kind of cloud gaming? Or will it only be large publisher titles available for these kind of services with behind closed door deals?<p>I get that this type of services reduces friction (somewhat) for playing graphically demanding games at the cost of network bandwidth (10gb/hour), but trying to work out what kind of possible Epic vs Apple shit fights this kind of silo platforms might start if it is rolled out to all AWS regions around the world and becomes dominant platform.
Feel like this going to kill any chance Stadia might have had, if they have enough games and they give you a couple of months for free / reduced price if you have a Twitch Prime this will probably own the game streaming market.
Ah damn, only available in the US. I was hoping that there'd be a streaming service available in Sydney/Canberra/Melbourne so I could actually have a chance of trying it with decent latency.
I wonder why don't any of these game streaming services every launch in developing countries like SEA. Affording gaming PC is quite difficult here, that's why Gaming Cafes are still so popular and even more so mobile games, however most people do have TVs because they are so cheap. I'd imagine 5$/month game streaming service would be much more attractive here than anywhere else.
I'm not a gamer but I find this interesting... So as far as I understand I could get access to unlimited amount of games without even having a gaming console or pc for few dollars a month? I guess that's the dream deal to any gamer..
This pairing up with a library of free Prime games seems like it could draw in a big crowd of casual gamers.<p>Don't know if this is still the case, but I remember on Fire tablets getting third party apps for free that cost money on other platforms.
I wonder how this one will go. I wish I lived closer to most of these companies data centers. It'd be great living in Spookville, Virginia right about now if you were into these game streaming services.
Will games eventually take over the TV/movie market? They seem superior to all forms of passive entertainment. I can still see TV Newsertainment because that’s basically just LARPing for old people.
I hope Amazon has plans for better distribution than their current datacenters. They have absolutely nothing in the US south or mid/mountain west. Maybe they'll run in some edges like Stadia?
Can we please stop giving human names to devices and services? It may not be as popular as Alexa as a real-name but it will just repeat the bully cycle for even more people now.
> Play on PC, Mac, Fire TV and web apps for iPhone and iPad<p>Is an equivalent service already available on their own Fire tablet hardware? That seems like a weird omission.
This ideas are good as long as they have good game catalog and game development companies behind right? Dont think is a technology capacity problem anymore.
Only available in the US and i can't find a link to the launch library. Judging by the background images not a single game i want is included.<p>Not a great start....
>Unlike streaming movies or music, cloud gaming can consume up to 10GB/hr at 1080p<p>Jesus Christ.<p>So of I want to go to game on my phone while I take the bus for an hour I've blown 10gbs from my data plan.<p>The only thing keeping me on Xbox Gamepass is the fact I can download games locally. At first I really liked it, but then connection dropped so much games where unplayable ( on WiFi )
I love waiting for an install, something in the mail, water to boil, etc. It’s a good time to slow down and reflect on anything else. I don’t want things now. I just want. Once I’m satisfied...the journey is over. People are so concerned with self optimizing time or the perfect experience that they forget you don’t have to hurry.<p>Having said that, in modern society you can have it all, but can you consume it all? Why would you want to?