Given the tough macro-economic headwinds around the world, upstart cloud gaming divisions appear to be struggling to maintain support at large corporations. Everyone, of course, is aware that Google recently announced the shut down of its Stadia platform (though we will have to see if the Stadia tech returns to service powering a third party cloud service from Ubisoft or other publishers). Microsoft has shelved its Project Keystone game streaming device for the time being. Now, from CNBC reporting, it appears that Amazon is making layoffs in its Amazon Luna division.
We recently reviewed Amazon Luna and found the service to have high fidelity streaming quality but lacked very basic features we have come to expect from a gaming platform – for example: basic multiplayer, friends lists, achievements, global game settings etc. In addition, it’s multi-channel subscription approach has begun to show cracks as well with games leaving the subscription (and the service entirely) on a more frequent basis and the value proposition struggling under a combined cost of $44 a month if you want access to all 298 games Amazon Luna currently offers (compare that to the over 500 games that Blacknut gaming gives you access to for $15 – which (outside of Ubisoft+) includes a lot of the same games as Amazon Luna.
It’s hard to know how the layoffs might affect Amazon Luna as a whole. Perhaps the service’s biggest weakness at the moment is its lack of availability outside of the United States, the only country you can officially play Luna in. It’s now hard to imagine an expansion is imminent in light of layoffs.
The Numbers Don’t Look Great
In various metrics we track, it is clear that Amazon Luna has struggled to catch on. Luna’s player base is likely an order of magnitude lower than where Stadia was when its shuttering was announced. And, the GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud gaming player base is likely 2x-5x higher than that!
We should keep in mind, another cloud gaming service, Vortex.gg, closed its doors earlier this year – and it had an Android app download count of over 10 million! Unfortunately, it appears the cloud gaming space is currently very tough to reach profitability in. Those servers aren’t free after all! The likely most honestly priced service (Shadow) now charges $30 an up per month for its service after it hit a bankruptcy situation earlier.
