Amazon is putting Prime Video Luna games inside the app on Fire TV devices, giving Prime members in the US and UK a Games tab where they can launch cloud-streamed titles without opening a separate Luna destination. Amazon said the integration includes games such as Dispatch, Fallout 4, Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 26, and Clue.
The move makes Amazon’s gaming pitch look less like a console-war cosplay and more like a bid for the people already sitting on the couch with Prime Video open. Luna was already part of Prime, according to The Verge, but burying it in a separate service made it easier to ignore. A tab in Prime Video is harder to miss.
Amazon said it will share more later about additional devices, countries, and games. For now, the rollout is limited to Fire TV hardware in the US and UK.
How do Luna games work in Prime Video?
Luna streams games from Amazon’s cloud servers, so the device is receiving video and sending back controller inputs rather than running the game locally. Inside Prime Video, the new Games tab acts as the front door: users pick a supported title and start playing through Luna.
That mechanism is the important part. Amazon is not asking a Fire TV stick to become a gaming PC, which would be adorable and doomed. It is using the television app as a launcher for streamed games, the same basic idea behind other cloud gaming services.
Amazon is aiming at casual players
The integration follows comments from Amazon gaming executive Jeff Gattis, who told The Verge last month about a broader shift in Amazon’s gaming strategy. The Verge reported that Prime Gaming, Amazon Game Studios, and Luna are now under one organization.
That combined group is trying to reach people who already use Prime Video for films, shows, and sports, rather than focusing chiefly on players who spend their time in MMOs and shooters, according to The Verge’s account of Amazon’s strategy. That is a narrower and more plausible target than trying to persuade dedicated players that Amazon is suddenly their main gaming platform.
Gattis also told The Hollywood Reporter that Amazon has “never established” itself as a gaming platform. He pointed to Amazon-controlled or Amazon-linked entertainment properties, including Tomb Raider and James Bond, as important to the company’s gaming plans.
Prime Video can now sell the game beside the show
The Games tab also gives Amazon a cleaner place to promote games tied to its video catalog. Amazon can show a game to someone who has just watched a related series or movie, which is the sort of cross-promotion conglomerates buy other companies to achieve.
Examples already in the mix include Masters of the Universe: Legends Unite, a co-op card battler tied to Amazon’s content, and Courtroom Chaos: Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which Amazon describes as an AI-powered party game. The latter arrives ahead of Schwarzenegger’s Amazon holiday movie planned for later this year, according to The Verge.
Netflix has also added TV-playable streaming games recently, according to The Verge, so Amazon is not alone in trying to make the streaming app do more than serve video. The difference is that Amazon already has Luna, Prime, Fire TV, and a pile of entertainment rights under one roof. The new tab is the company finally putting those parts in the same room.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
