Amazon Luna is out of early access and is now widely available, but Amazon's foray into a cloud gaming service comes with a few caveats. Cloud gaming is a fairly recent development and the past few years have shown what works and what doesn't. Amazon Luna succeeds where similar services have stumbled, but it's still held back by a few issues.
The Amazon Luna service is already available to Prime members, and this is where the service has a leg up on its competition: a lot of people have Prime already, so there's not necessarily a need to pay an additional subscription. Each month, a few titles are available for free for Prime members via Amazon Luna, allowing them to stream anything from AAA games like Devil May Cry 5 to lesser-known indie titles like PHOGS! (both of which are available for March 2022).
However, there are additional premium services available for those wanting to try out more than a handful of games each month. Luna+ is currently $5.99 a month at a locked-in rate and offers a variety of games that will probably prove to be the most appealing to users. There's the Family channel for $2.99 a month at a locked-in rate, offering dozens of kid-friendly games like SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated. The Retro channel and Jackbox Games channel are both available for $4.99 a month while Ubisoft+ is $17.99 per month.
The additional paid services are where Amazon Luna stumbles, even though it's an improved model over Google Stadia. These channels come with monthly costs that are in addition to a Prime membership, which means getting the most out of Luna's cloud gaming is more expensive than similar services like PS Now and Game Pass. Assuming someone just wants to buy the controller (which is priced at $69.99) and has Prime already, then it could be worth the price of admission and is definitely easier and cheaper than upgrading consoles every few years. A family without any consoles could certainly take advantage of the Family channel or Luna+ rather than buying games. Again, this is all assuming they have Prime already and no other ways to play games.
The games themselves run extremely well. On a 900 Mbps connection using Wi-Fi, there was only one game (Urban Trial Playground) out of around the 25 that were played that actually lagged - and this seemed to be a problem with the game itself rather than the Amazon Luna service. Even games that required more performance demand and featured higher graphics (like Devil May Cry 5) ran just fine and without any noticeable issues.
The Luna controller is comfortable and comes with AA batteries so it's ready to use after opening. New owners will have to download the Luna controller app first, though, and install firmware updates and get it synced before the Bluetooth connectivity will work properly on their phone, computer, or Fire TV. The controller uses batteries - rechargeable batteries can be bought separately - which is another headache that may turn away some prospective buyers. In 2022, paying $70 for a controller that still uses AA batteries feels outdated and impractical.
On the bright side, the Luna controller is comfortable and works well. It's not necessary to use Amazon Luna (compatible Bluetooth controllers to a user's device will also work, as will a mouse and keyboard) but this is the recommended controller for those who want to use Amazon's cloud gaming service. While Prime members may wish to take advantage of the service, Amazon Luna right now feels more misguided than anything else. It simply doesn't know who its target audience is - a problem that also plagued Google Stadia. In its current form, Amazon Luna is just too impractical to really recommend; although, those who prefer a subscription to buying gaming consoles may find it to be a great substitute.
An Amazon Luna controller was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.