Amazon announced that its Luna game streaming service is now available, as is the web-based client for iPhone and iPad.

“The team has been hard at work building Luna and … we’ve been overwhelmed by the response,” Amazon’s Marc Whitten writes in the announcement post. “We’ve received hundreds of thousands of requests for early access, and starting today, we will begin granting invitations to a small set of customers in the U.S. to join us and help shape the future of gaming on Luna.”

Amazon Luna is available in Early Access on Amazon Fire TVs, Windows PCs, Macs, and, thanks to some web app shenanigans, on iPhone and iPad, too. Amazon says that support for Android is coming soon. The service will cost $5.99 per month during the preview—I assume it will be $9.99 after that, though one wonders about deals for Prime customers—and it launches with 50 games.

Luna Early Access members can use the service with any Bluetooth gaming controller that is compatible with the device they’re using. But they can also buy a Luna Controller for $49.99, which, similar to Google’s Stadia controller, can take advantage of unique “Cloud Direct” technology that offers lower latency gaming and Alexa voice control.

“We are starting with a small set of first customers on the service and we’ll continue to invite more players to join us over the coming months,” Whitten adds. “We appreciate your patience.”

Obviously, many of us here in Xbox land are curious about the performance and capability of the web app for iPhone and iPad, since that’s how Microsoft intends to bring Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with Game Streaming to those platforms. The Verge notes that web app streaming works like any other iOS/iPadOS app and is “good enough” for most uses. Apparently, even the native apps are pretty bare-bones at this time.

I’ll sign-up for Luna as soon as it’s offered to find out more.

Tagged with Amazon Luna