Amazon Luna, the cloud gaming service has finally expanded into more territories. They're also no longer blocking Linux.
Previously, you needed a few tricks to get around their blocking to get into Luna, if you were in the USA where it was supported. Now though with the expansion into Canada, Germany and the UK more people can try it out. Playing it on my Linux desktop (Fedora KDE) with Chrome, it works out of the box but you just get an unsupported device warning that you can safely skip over and then the games appear to work just fine.
From the press release:
“With Amazon Luna, we’re making gaming easier and more convenient by offering instant access to console-quality games on devices customers already own,” said Eric Saarnio, vice president, Amazon Devices International. “Gamers in the U.S. have been enjoying Luna for the past year so we’re thrilled to now expand the service to customers in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.”
What it offers up:
- Free games each month for Amazon Prime subscribers, rotated so you don't keep them.
- Luna+ at £8.99 a month for access to various games.
- Ubisoft+ at £14.99 a month for lots of Ubisoft games.
- Jackbox games at £3.99 to access their party games.
Prime members who also have Luna+ can link to Ubisoft Connect to play a select few Ubisoft games too.
They're going to have to do a lot to compete with Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce NOW, both much more established and both can work on Linux and Steam Deck too. Cloud Gaming is clearly here to stay, it just depends on who has the resources to keep it up initially and doesn't go with a crap business model like Google did with Stadia.
Will any of you be giving Amazon Luna a go? Are you already using it? What do you think?
mr-victory Mar 22, 2023
No way to play amazon prime games?That's an entirely separate thing. There is an in-progress app for Linux from the community, but I can never remember the name.
BlackBloodRum Mar 22, 2023
From a privacy perspective it is quite scary to let Amazon have your gaming profile in addition to your real-life (shopping) data.You think shopping profile and gaming profile is the only data they have on you? Don't be so naive
You think shopping profile and gaming profile is the only data they have on you? Don't be so naiveAh yes, the wonders of everyone using AWS…
Worst part is that ChromeOS and Android both get unrestricted profiles, it’s just Desktop Linux getting the 1080p/60 shaft.
Give a trash company more money to play games I won’t own? No thanks.
Even trash has some value.
mr-victory Mar 22, 2023
They still limit Linux clients to 1080p/60Hz,Uhh source? I did a web search but couldn't come across something like this, only limitations in their video streaming service.
ripper81358 Mar 22, 2023
I don’t know that I’d be so quick to give kudos to Nvidia. They still limit Linux clients to 1080p/60Hz, which doesn’t sound that bad till you have a nice 4K/144Hz monitor and go back to dual booting for competitive games.
Worst part is that ChromeOS and Android both get unrestricted profiles, it’s just Desktop Linux getting the 1080p/60 shaft.
You get the same or even worse limitations with many videostreaming providers on linux. However linux is not officialy supported by any streamingprovider as far as i know. And there are also technical problems here like support for the needed DRM technologies like HDCP and the fact that hardware videoencoding is basicaly unsupported by all browsers on linux.
So no streaming service is really intended to work on linux at all. If does work it will more or less go the save route regarding featuresupport. That means things like 4K are clearly out of scope.
Meh, this is unfortunate.No way to play amazon prime games?That's an entirely separate thing. There is an in-progress app for Linux from the community, but I can never remember the name.
I'd expected to be able to play the games I already own on Prime Games via Luna by just paying the base fee.
It is like steam opening a streaming game services and expecting you to pay to play other games or the games you already own on its platform.
No way.
It worked out of the box on Chrome. No issues. I did have to stream in 720 instead of 1080, but that was more a limitation of my laptop and WiFi.
I haven't really used it since as the free games aren't really what I'm into.
But the technology part and the streaming is just fine. Worked better than Steam's remote play (at the time, RP has gotten better that they are pretty much on par).
I will say I've only tried it because it is free (I've stopped buying games for the time being). But I can see the appeal of the subscription service; especially if you play a lot and are constantly wanting something new or some variety.
Whats the game in shot? :)
Not completely sure, but I think it's Chained Echoes, which Liam gave a glowing review a few months back.
Edit - or... it might be Octopath Traveller, or its sequel?
Edit again - goddamit, this is a rabbit hole! Googling Lloyd and Tio suggests that actually, we're looking at Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
Last edited by scaine on 23 March 2023 at 9:58 am UTC
Whats the game in shot? :)
Not completely sure, but I think it's Chained Echoes, which Liam gave a glowing review a few months back.
Edit - or... it might be Octopath Traveller, or its sequel?
Edit again - goddamit, this is a rabbit hole! Googling Lloyd and Tio suggests that actually, we're looking at Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
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