Amazon Luna

Among today’s swathe of cloud gaming platforms, Amazon’s Luna doesn’t have many ideas of its own. That’s especially when you compare it to Google’s Stadia, from which Luna has taken the concept of connecting an official (albeit optional) Luna Controller (pictured) directly to its server, rather than to the device you’re using to stream the game, to reduce latency issues. Similarly, Ubisoft is offering its games on Luna (what new gaming platform is complete without day-one support from Ubisoft?). And then there’s Twitch, which is integrated into Luna so that you switch from watching a game being played to playing it yourself instantly, rather like Stadia’s mooted State Share feature, which does much the same with YouTube.

But just as Google’s global infrastructure and ownership of YouTube is the reason why Stadia remains worthy of attention, Amazon’s clout as one of the world’s biggest providers of Web services and the owner of Twitch makes Luna one to watch this year. Amazon’s server farms are huge and they’re everywhere, which means the potential for its quality of service is as high as any firm can currently manage. Early reports from its US-only beta suggest it’s happily churning out action at 1080 resolution. Not 4K yet: one thing in Luna’s favour is its lack of promises. Stadia has been guilty of underdelivering on Google’s pre-launch claims, and Amazon is in a good position to overdeliver. With the success of the new-generation consoles revealing how far cloud gaming still has to go to prove itself, solid performance from proven industry leaders is its best hope.