Amazon launches the Luna Family Channel and teases the Retro Channel

On 9 September 2021, Amazon announced and launched the Family Channel on Luna. It is an additional $2.99 per month and hosts over 35 games including SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom—Rehydrated, Garfield Kart—Furious Racing and Transformers: Battlegrounds. Aimed at families with young children, all the games included have an ESRB rating of E or E10+. Ampere’s Games Consumer research (Q2 2021) shows that 67% of Luna subscribers live with children, and 76% state that the service is used by everyone in the household. This suggests that a family-focused content library could be well-received. Families already enjoying the baseline subscription will likely purchase the additional channel as it comes at a relatively low cost.

Luna also revealed it is working on a Retro Channel, an upcoming service that will include classic and arcade games from established publishers such as Atari and SNK+. This service could appeal to lapsed gamers who will turn to retro content for nostalgia. The Retro Channel will provide a simple route to access older gaming content, which can often be difficult to obtain and expensive when purchased outright. Amazon can monetise this group further by introducing users to modern content in the Luna catalogue and by driving spending on gaming products on the Amazon website.

Fire Tablets and Chromebooks now support Luna

Amazon Luna is currently supported on a wide range of household devices including PCs, Macs, Fire TVs, iOS devices, and Android phones. Amazon has now confirmed that Fire Tablets and Chromebooks will support the streaming service. Amazon continues to extend the entry points to its new service but must also commit to maintaining those apps on different devices while users remain relatively low. Importantly, consumers who own lower-cost digital devices, such as Chromebooks or Fire Tablets, may be unable to access high powered gaming hardware. Luna offers a reasonably priced alternative to traditional gaming and can raise revenue from audiences who are otherwise unable to play games.

Play local multiplayer games online with Luna Couch

Luna Couch is another new feature available on the subscription service. It lets Luna subscribers play any local multiplayer game from its catalogue online. Subscribers who host a Luna Couch session can invite anyone with a supported device to play, including those who do not subscribe to the service. This adds value to the product as Ampere’s latest games consumer data indicates that 78% of Luna subscribers prefer to play multiplayer games. On the other hand, Luna Couch will showcase the service to non-subscribers during an online session. As Ampere’s research also shows that 31% of gamers in the USA discover games through word of mouth, online play may convert the users to paying subscribers.

‘Multi-access’ Ubisoft+ subscription increases in price

Amazon launched Luna, its cloud-based games subscription service, into early access in October 2020. The service is currently priced at $5.99 a month and is available to users in Mainland US. One month after its initial launch, Luna added the Ubisoft+ channel and allowed users to sign up to the service for the standard price of $14.99 a month. Existing subscribers of Ubisoft’s PC download service could also connect their accounts and access a collection of cloud-enabled games via Amazon Luna (and Google Stadia).

In Amazon’s recent announcement, it stated that the price of the Luna-based Ubisoft+ channel will increase to $17.99 a month on 30 September 2021. Current subscribers can retain the lower introductory price if they subscribe before the date and do not cancel their subscription. Ubisoft confirmed that it was introducing a ‘multi-access’ tier to its Ubisoft+ service at the higher price which would be relevant to Amazon Luna and Google Stadia. The PC download version of Ubisoft+ will remain at $14.99 a month. The higher price is being introduced to offset higher streaming distribution costs and revenue share arrangements with Amazon and Google.