A few weeks back Amazon announced its Luna cloud game streaming service and the news coming through is that it’s now available in early access. First revealed in late September, Luna allows gamers to stream games on a PC, Mac, Fire TV, or browser apps on an iPhone or iPad.
It uses storage and computing resources from the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform to deliver a low latency gaming experience.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Amazon said it had received “hundreds of thousands of requests” for invites to early access since Luna was first announced.
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It has now begun sending invitations to a small set of these customers in the US, from whom it is looking to get feedback on their experience with the service, including what they like and dislike, and which features they would want to see added.
Users will have to pay $5.99 (R98) per month for access to the Luna+ Game Channel, which provides an initial library of 50 games – including Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Metro: Exodus, and Sonic Mania.
Amazon also plans to add a Ubisoft Channel to the service, which will include the publisher’s most popular games and upcoming titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
In addition to using a keyboard, mouse or Bluetooth controller for input, customers can buy Amazon’s own Luna gamepad at $49.99 (R820), which the company claims reduces latency by 17-30ms with the use of Cloud Direct technology.
Cloud game streaming on the rise
Amazon is joining big tech names like Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, and Sony in the cloud game streaming market.
Newzoo’s Global Cloud Gaming Report has estimated that cloud gaming generated a total of $158 million in 2019.
According to its analysis, this is set to grow exponentially over the next few years as follows:
- 2020 – $590 million
- 2021 – $1.27 billion
- 2022 – $2.21 billion
- 2023 – $3.2 billion
The graph below shows Newzoo’s Global Cloud Gaming Market Cap Forecasts for various scenarios. Click here to read the full report.
South African availability
None of the major cloud game streaming services are officially available in South Africa yet. The feasibility of cloud gaming relies heavily on its ability to deliver low latency.
Using servers which are physically located far away will result in slower responses to user input, which will be detrimental to the overall experience.
Because of this, it is likely that these services only become available in regions once the necessary cloud infrastructure is rolled out or has been provisioned for this purpose.
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