Amazon celebrates Stadia's demise with Luna game streaming sale

Amazon is responding to Google Stadia's demise with a well-timed sale on its own game streaming platform.

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Today Amazon announced a substantial discount on its game streaming service, Luna. Gamers can get the Luna controller and one month of the premium Luna+ subscription service for $39.99, which represents a 43% savings over the bundle's original MSRP of $69.99.

Luna+ includes access to 130 games across AAA, indies, and casual gametypes. The lineup includes hits like Yakuza Like A Dragon, Control, the Castlevania and Contra collections, Metro Exodus, Alien Isolation, and both Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes. Luna+ originally costs $9.99 a month but is free for all Amazon Prime subscribers (shared accounts don't work, however).

Even with Stadia out of the picture it's still unknown how well Luna is doing. Unlike Stadia, which required gamers to buy titles a la carte, Luna allows gamers to buy access to channels for a monthly subscription. For example, the Ubisoft+ channel offers access to nearly all of Ubisoft's games for $17.99 a month.

The most unique feature of Luna is its direct Twitch integration. If a content creator is streaming a game from Luna, viewers can click on a link and launch the same game that the streamer is playing.

"Gaming is more social than ever before and Twitch is where the world's best streamers meet the world's most engaged gaming community. Twitch is one of the most important ways that audiences discover great games and experiences, and we think cloud streaming can make that kind of discovery even easier. Inside the Luna experience, players will see Twitch streams for games in the service, and from Twitch, they'll be able to instantly start playing Luna games."

Here's what you need to know:

• Luna+ is $9.99 a month
• Games can be streamed to Fire TV, iOS mobile devices, Mac, PC
• Publishers will have their own "channels"
• Special $40 controller connects directly to cloud
• Controller not needed--you can use a PS4, Xbox One controller, or mouse & keyboard
• Can use 10GB/hour for 1080p 60FPS gaming

Luna requirements

• PC (requires Windows 10 with support for DirectX 11)
• Mac (OSX 10.13+)
• FireTV devices (Fire TV Stick - 2nd gen, Fire TV Stick 4K, or Fire TV Cube - 2nd gen)
• 10Mbps connection for 1080p, 35Mbps for 4K