Amazon
AMZN
, amid gamers’ anticipation for its cloud gaming service Amazon Luna, finally made it available to everyone in the mainland United States.
The company has added the latest features to the service, namely Live Broadcasting to Twitch and Luna Phone Controller. Notably, the former allows customers to broadcast gameplay to friends or the Twitch community seamlessly. In contrast, the latter allows gamers to try Luna on Fire TV using a smartphone as the controller through the Luna Controller app.
Apart from these, the company has expanded its content library by unveiling three channels on Luna. Now, there are six channels in total on Luna, offering several popular high-end games.
All the endeavors testify that the e-commerce giant is aggressively exploring and investing in the booming cloud gaming market.
Although Amazon Luna is new in the market as a cloud gaming service compared to
Alphabet
GOOGL
division Google’s Stadia and
Microsoft
’s
MSFT
XCloud, it holds the potential to capture a significant market share in the short run.
Hence, Amazon’s aggressive stance in cloud gaming poses a serious challenge to other players, including GOOGL, MSFT and
NVIDIA
NVDA
.
One-Year Price Performance
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Expanding Luna Library Poses Threat
Amazon’s deepening focus toward delivering enhanced gaming experience to customers on the back of expanding content library on Luna remains a major positive.
Prime Gaming, Retro and Jackbox Games are the three newly introduced channels on Luna, allowing gamers to access several new, popular and fan-favorite titles at reasonable subscription prices.
Retro channel offers classic titles from publishers like Capcom and SNK –
Street Fighter II’ – Hyper Fighting –
,
Metal Slug 3
and
Castlevania Anniversary Collection
.
Jackbox Games channel provides access to all eight
Party Packs
from Jackbox Games and other hits like
Quiplash
,
YOU DON’T KNOW JACK
,
Drawful
, and
Trivia Murder Party
.
Prime Gaming channel allows Prime members to play a rotating selection of games for free. For March, Prime members can play
Devil May Cry 5
,
Observer: System Redux
,
PHOGS!
and
Flashback
.
Apart from these, the Luna+ channel offers more than 100 titles like
Ghostrunner
,
Team Sonic Racing
, and
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
. The Ubisoft+ channel provides access to Ubisoft’s popular new releases, such as
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
,
Far Cry 6
, and
Immortals Fenyx Rising
. The Family channel offers fun titles, including
Monster Truck Championship
,
Heave Ho
, and
Sponge Bob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom
.
We note that expanding content library positions Amazon, which currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), well to capitalize on the growth prospects in the cloud gaming market. Notably, the market, per a report from Allied Market Research, is expected to hit $21.9 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 57.2% between 2021 and 2030.
You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
Should GOOGL, MSFT & NVDA Worry?
With the continuous rise in the demand for cloud gaming on increasing Internet use and the growing proliferation of cloud technology (which has now become mainstream in the gaming industry), Google, Microsoft and NVIDIA are making concerted efforts to bolster their presence in the promising market.
Google continues to add advanced features to Stadia and bring major game updates. Recently, the company added a feature called the ‘Trending’ section to the Explore tab, which gives players an idea about the popular game on Stadia.
Apart from this, the company introduced updates to the existing games. The major update called Secret Hosr of game title
Embr
, which turns one teammate into a saboteur, was recently made available on Stadia.
For this month, Google has added five games titled
Adam Wolfe
,
Dawn of the Monsters
,
Race with Ryan: Road Trip Deluxe Edition
,
Darksiders Genesis
and
Darkwood
, which are available to Stadia Pro subscribers.
This Zacks Rank #3 company has officially committed to adding at least 100 games to Stadia by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s combining of Project xCloud and Xbox Game Pass remains a major positive. Its decision to extend its cloud gaming to Xbox Series X and Series S, along with Xbox One consoles, remains noteworthy.
The extension is likely to drive the Zacks Rank #3 company’s momentum among gamers as they are able to play multiplayer games with just an invite and access Gen 9-only Xbox games like
Microsoft Flight Simulator
and
The Medium
on Xbox One.
Further, NVIDIA, which sports a Zacks Rank #1 at present, is benefiting from its next-generation cloud gaming platform, GeForce NOW, which delivers GeForce RTX 3080-class gaming. The addition of Electronic Arts’ hit games like
Battlefield 1 Revolution
,
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
,
Unravel Two, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Apex Legends
to GeForce NOW remains noteworthy.
NVIDIA GeForce NOW will also be introduced to Samsung’s selected 2022 smart TV lineups.
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