Amazon plans to relaunch its cloud gaming platform Luna later this year. The “all-new Luna” has been “redesigned and reimagined” with a focus on living room TVs, as an easy-to-use delivery system for a lineup of party games.
Luna will relaunch with a new feature called GameNight, which is a collection of more than 25 multiplayer party games. In addition to specially “optimized” takes on established titles like Angry Birds and Exploding Kittens, GameNight will launch with the Amazon-developed exclusive Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg.
Courtroom Chaos is described as a “human-built, AI-powered improv courtroom game” where players will have to “do whatever it takes to defend their testimonies before Judge Snoop Dogg.” It’s the first of a series of party games made in-house at Amazon, utilizing AI and the cloud, and only available via Luna.
“With advances in AI and cloud technology, we see opportunities to create entirely new kinds of games – experiences that were never possible before,” Jeff Gattis, general manager of Amazon Luna, wrote in a blog post.
Luna can be run on a Fire TV, smart TV, or tablet, while players drop into the current game by scanning QR codes with their smartphones. No specialized hardware is required, and the service will be included as part of an Amazon Prime subscription.
The overall goal, according to Amazon, is to “reinvent” gaming by placing a renewed emphasis on accessibility and fun, while swinging it away from expensive hardware and solo gameplay. The new Luna is intended to be easy to get into, inexpensive, and focused on family-friendly, social activities.
“Until now … playing on the big screen [living room TV] usually means expensive consoles, costly graphics cards, and complicated games that end up feeling more like a commitment than a quick escape,” Gattis wrote.
Gattis continued: “The industry hasn’t done enough to welcome the 100s of millions of people who want to experience the magic of playing games on the big screen but feel left out – those who don’t see themselves as ‘gamers,’ those who don’t want to spend a fortune on hardware, or those who just want something simple, social, and fun.”
In addition to GameNight, the new Luna will retain some of its previous focus. While they’ll require an actual Bluetooth controller, Prime subscribers will get access to a “diverse and growing” library of single-player video games, some of which include Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Dave the Diver, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Dead Island 2,and Farming Simulator.
As with the previous version of Luna, these games can be played on a network-capable device, streaming their gameplay directly from Amazon’s cloud servers. Fans can also subscribe to Luna Premium for access to more and newer games, such as EA Sports FC 25 and Batman: Arkham Knight.
The revamp of Luna as a casual-friendly platform for newcomers and budget-conscious hobbyists is a callback to an old conversation in the video game industry, albeit one that’s largely fallen by the wayside in recent years. Nintendo has famously made inroads toward that sector with hardware like the Wii, while Microsoft has noted but not emphasized the benefits of projects like its Game Pass service as a cheap (before the Oct. 1 price hike, anyway), easy way to play all the latest games.
It’s a potential place for Amazon to make new inroads into the industry, which has stubbornly resisted many of its attempts to join in recent years. While Amazon has had some hits as a localizer, such as the translated MMO Throne and Liberty and the South Korean action-RPG Lost Ark, its original projects have either not yet materialized or landed with a thud.
By moving into both the cloud-services market, which has fallen out of prominence in the last couple of years, and the casual-friendly budget-gaming scene, it’s possible that Amazon might find some success by exploring a couple of underrepresented scenes.
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