Amazon chases Google, Microsoft in the game-streaming market

Amazon is planning to ramp up coronavirus testing among its employees. Reuters

Amazon is diving into the new and hotly contested market for streaming video games, the company said during a press event that also revealed a refreshed line-up of Echo smart speakers and a flying home video camera.

Luna, a service that lets gamers play without shelling out for expensive game consoles or games, is Amazon’s biggest foray yet into the fast-growing $150 billion (Dh550.5bn) video gaming market.

A subscription to the Luna+ channel costs $5.99 a month during an introductory period and will include games such as Resident Evil 7, Control and Panzer Dragoon.

The offering, available at first to invited testers, will go head to head with rival services launched in recent years by the likes of Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Nvidia.

It is a long-anticipated debut for Amazon, which operates the largest network of on-demand software services through its Amazon Web Services cloud division.

The company has also long harboured ambitions to expand its video game entertainment franchise beyond Twitch, the gamer-focused internet live streaming company it bought in 2014.

Dave Limp, a senior vice president who leads Amazon’s devices and services group, said close ties to Twitch, as well as seamless game streaming enabled by Amazon’s cloud-computing group, would aid the company in appealing to players not served by high-end consoles.

“We didn’t build this to displace consoles, they are here, they are going to be here for a long, long period of time,” he said. “We built it to attract a different type of audience.”

Amazon announced the game streaming programme at a devices showcase. The company has held these events in recent years in an effort to stay ahead in smart speakers and accompanying voice software, a market the company helped invent with its Echo device and Alexa software.

Echo speakers and other smart home devices were the darlings of the consumer electronics world a few years ago, but growth has waned more recently.

The Covid-19 pandemic gives Amazon a chance to re-ignite growth now that millions of consumers are working and studying from home.

Amazon maintains a lead in smart speaker sales over rivals such as Google and Apple.

In recent years, the company has tried to expand Alexa’s domain beyond typical interactions like answering questions or reading the weather. It has unveiled high-end music-streaming devices, internet-connected home appliances and tie-ins with automakers.