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[Ceadeus]

That's good! I also like the purple on the controller.

 

[Bullet Club]

Amazon Luna

 

[Mister Wolf]

They definitely were going to buy Zenimax.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Gee it sure is boring around here without eighty storefronts.

The 80s crash approacheth.

 

[reinking]

This is the first service like this where you don't even have the option to purchase the games right?

I'm not sure I like where we are heading...

Can't you still purchase those games most anywhere?

 

[Aranea]

My internet is not good enough, so this type of service won't be an option for me for many years (even if i wanted too). Not that i would want to subscribe to a service like this anyway.

 

[Fnord]

What is it with both Amazon and Google giving their platforms fucking awful names?

To be fair, Luna isn't a terrible name out of context. It just doesn't make sense for what it is. Stadia is just horrible regardless.

 

[wolffy71]

When people talk about streaming its usually that they report things like, " its not too bad depending on the game", "my phone is way too laggy to even play", or "it works as long you use it hardwired"

Its the 3rd of those that is consoles biggest threat obviously. Smart tv that let you bypass a console purchase but still play well is gonna matter as almost a seperate customer base from the mobile side. I think a lot of times we group them together but i really see them as different.

There's like a 100% chance that Amazon is gonna buy some dev teams here, especially with them struggling to make their own games.

 

[GHG]

I agree. The danger is that this stuff starts having the same effect Spotify and Apple Music had on musicians, or the App Store had on software and software developers. "Good Enough" services that gut the bigger endeavors the traditional model supports. If 90% of the gamer crowd prefers this model, even though there is no way it's as good as local devices with software installed directly ... the economics for bigger games might not exist anymore.

Yep, the final stage will be the mobile market merging and everything being one in the same.

Companies will compete on "time played" and other engagement metrics rather than on outright quality. Like on mobile, eventually the only way developers will be able to make decent money directly is via microtransactions.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Of course. It is laughable to think that a trillion dollar company like MS bought Zenimax to compete with Sony.

I'm not so sure about this. All this shows is that literally nothing matters except game developers and games. The hardware doesn't matter, the ecosystem doesn't matter, nothing but games. Literally anyone can start a streaming service, I can start one up on AWS tomorrow. Going to streaming means the only thing anyone competes on is the number of games available on the service, just like video streaming services. In that respect, Sony will always still be competitive, because there is nothing stopping them from putting everything on PSNow if they had to.

 

[lastmessiah]

Can't you still purchase those games most anywhere?

I don't get people's obsession with "owning" games (protip: you don't own them) but they always have to raise a stink about these services as if they can't just buy the games anywhere. It is baffling.

 

[Lone Wolf]

So what do these games run on? id like to know the specs.

 

[Zoro7]

But....why?

 

[lastmessiah]

Sony will always still be competitive, because there is nothing stopping them from putting everything on PSNow if they had to.

I don't think you'll ever see that happen.

 

[Damigos]

As if stadia wasnt enough.
WTF ? Is this the future ?
Colossal companies buying colossal publishers to get exclusives they cant make and a ton of streaming services ?

 

[iconmaster]

If it were free with Prime and I could use it with any old bluetooth controller (strike that, they are supporting other controllers), I'd give it a shot. Otherwise, no.

 

[Potato Chip PRO]

First Stadians and now we Xbros have to face Lunatics!? Ready the catapults!!!

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

As if stadia wasnt enough.
WTF ? Is this the future ?
Colossal companies buying colossal publishers to get exclusives they cant make and a ton of streaming services ?

Now your'e getting it.

 

[Krisprolls]

No. That is not the way that works. You still have to pay for Gold.

He was talking about Pc gamepass, which cost $1 until very recently.

 

[Redlancet]

As if stadia wasnt enough.
WTF ? Is this the future ?
Colossal companies buying colossal publishers to get exclusives they cant make and a ton of streaming services ?

people were celebrating this two days ago,its like turkeys gloating aboug getting fat for christmas

 

[a multicultural team of v]

I don't think you'll ever see that happen.

Well no, but if the options are Playstation goes out of business or they put their games on Now, I think they just might choose now.

Though by then Sony would have probably sold them off because if Bethesda is worth $7.5 billion, Playstation WWS gotta be worth quite a nice sum.

 

[Calhoun]

This seems a bit more serious than Stadia. Atleast some effort is being put here.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Wish I could try it here in Canada. Odd you can't use a firetv 4k stick

 

[Redlancet]

He was talking about Pc gamepass, which cost $1 until very recently.

pc gamepass doesnt cost 1 dollar dude,its 5 and now 10

 

[Stuart360]

As if stadia wasnt enough.
WTF ? Is this the future ?
Colossal companies buying colossal publishers to get exclusives they cant make and a ton of streaming services ?

Its the future, it sucks but it is. One more gen after next, and even that may be pushing it depending how long next gen goes.

 

[LisaMariaMartin]

Damn, day and date Ubisoft releases? That is way more competitive than Stadia.

I wonder why they didn't buy Zenimax. They certainly could have made it way uglier for MS than 7.5B if they turned it into a bidding war.

 

[M16]

Damn, day and date Ubisoft releases? That is way more competitive than Stadia.

this is probably only for the initial launch phase
they talk about "channels", which i think are subscription tiers
ex: you buy the base Luna tier, and lets say you want to add the ubisoft channel, you will have to pay $x.xx for it

 

[T-Cake]

What a shame they didn't release any tech specs. I wonder what CPU/GPU/RAM is powering Amazon Luna. Must be better than Stadia.

 

[LarknThe4th]

So lessons learned from Stadia faceplanting are......

Games people, many consumers will buy in on a streaming service but they need a fuckton of games at launch and more to come

X Cloud is gonna eat all these guys up for breakfast, it's like they did zero research

 

[Stuart360]

Damn, day and date Ubisoft releases? That is way more competitive than Stadia.

I wonder why they didn't buy Zenimax. They certainly could have made it way uglier for MS than 7.5B if they turned it into a bidding war.

You would rather they bought Zenimax than Microsoft?, and have future Bethesda games tied to a streaming service only?

 

[FranXico]

This is probably why Sony went to Microsoft for Azure. For all we know, Amazon told them the prices were going to go up considerably.

Sony used to rely on AWS.

 

[FranXico]

You would rather they bought Zenimax than Microsoft?, and have future Bethesda games tied to a streaming service only?

Yeah, between MS and Amazon, I would indeed see MS as the lesser of two evils.

 

[jshackles]

this is probably only for the initial launch phase
they talk about "channels", which i think are subscription tiers
ex: you buy the base Luna tier, and lets say you want to add the ubisoft channel, you will have to pay $x.xx for it

That's the impression I got too, this is a similar concept to their Prime Video Channels (Starz, HBO, CBS All Access, etc.)

Rather than being "the Netflix of gaming" they are shooting for "the cable company of gaming".

 

[diffusionx]

Damn, day and date Ubisoft releases? That is way more competitive than Stadia.

I wonder why they didn't buy Zenimax. They certainly could have made it way uglier for MS than 7.5B if they turned it into a bidding war.

For all we know, they did...

 

[Dolomite]

 

[lock2k]

Luna, Luma.

OMG = Amazon buying Nintendo confirmed

 

[CAB_Life]

Let these mega corporations (MS, Google, Amazon) battle each other to get those $5 a month subs whilst Sony and Nintendo sew up the traditional AAA market between them.

The problem is that Sony eventually becomes a boutique publisher, effectively pushed out of the market by the streaming giants, and reliant on their own IPs only, as with Nintendo. Only they don’t have the same mass market appeal as Mario, Animal Crossing, etc, nor do they operate on the same profit margins (cheap/ affordable).

Sony need to heavily invest in PSNow next gen, or they’ll get left behind.

 

[Stuart360]

Yeah, between MS and Amazon, I would indeed see MS as the lesser of two evils.

You mean No then?

 

[Hudo]

Both Amazon and Google can go fuck themselves with that streaming shit.

 

[FranXico]

You mean No then?

I mean, having no other choice, better MS than Amazon.

 

[Hendrick's]

They will do a better job than Google.

 

[lastmessiah]

The big thing here is that Luna is on iOS. I wonder what that means for xCloud's chances of getting there.

 

[yugoluke]

Lol, just throw it in with Prime. I will give it a shot.

 

[NullZ3r0]

Potential ramifications?

Amazon announces new cloud gaming service called Luna

Another big company jumps into cloud gaming.

www.theverge.com

Interface:

Controller:

How it works:


Games:


My concern is we are going down a road where cheap and quick is the road games will go down to make stuff like this economically viable. And not to mention the whole latency thing ...

I play with Stadia and the majority of the time I forget I'm streaming. That's how good this is. There's a reason the Big three (MS, Google, Amazon) has gone this route.

 

[CatLady]

If its free for Amazon Prime subscribers it might work.

Yeah if they roll this into Prime it could be a real winner. This puts Stadia to shame assuming it works well. I have no interest in game streaming but this could be a good deal for those that are and unlike Stadia offer very serious competition to xCloud

 

[T-Cake]

It suggests with the fact that so many games are available at launch that they are using Windows based servers and DirectX so that the bog standard Windows versions need little tinkering to present them on Luna. No Linux nor Vulkan complications like Stadia.

 

[KungFucius]

Ah so that's why they are not selling any 3080s.

I am not yet interested in streaming games. They will probably wipe your saves if you let your subscription lapse while you use a competitor.

 

[lastmessiah]

I play with Stadia and the majority of the time I forget I'm streaming. That's how good this is. There's a reason the Big three (MS, Google, Amazon) has gone this route.

Yeah I don't get the complaints about Stadia, though I do have a high-speed broadband connection.

 

[LisaMariaMartin]

Its the future, it sucks but it is. One more gen after next, and even that may be pushing it depending how long next gen goes.

This is not true.

People love to compare it to movies and music but gaming is a fundamentally different medium simply based on the way it is delivered to the consumer.

With music, no one but purists notice if you degrade the quality. You can deliver music to customers in a very efficient way thanks to compression. The same thing is true for movies. You can stream in 720p/1080p/2160p but reduce the bitrate to level where most people won't care about it.

Both music and movies can also be buffered. Games can't be buffered because they are interactive. Input lag will never ever be reduced 100% and is critical for 99% of games. Signals travel at a set speed and no one will ever be able to do anything about that problem unless they manage to invent faster than light travel lol.

You would rather they bought Zenimax than Microsoft?, and have future Bethesda games tied to a streaming service only?

Absolutely not. You misunderstood. I am happy MS bought them because I hate streaming.

Pachter said in 2018 that two companies were in the talks for Zenimax. Microsoft and Amazon. Amazon is pretty big so I thought they could have made it a lot nastier for MS.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Wish I could try it here in Canada. Odd you can't use a firetv 4k stick

Wait, when they said fire tv I assumed that meant the cube. Does it work with firesticks too? I have 2 4k ones I'd try it with. Wireless though