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Luna – Cloud gaming service

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Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#201

Post by ehsankia »

boardwaalk wrote: post #46

The Venn diagram for target audience and situational use cases of these services has always seemed very small to me. At least the subscription model and game selection seems better than Stadia. edit: Also, it seems to me like the target audience is for the same sort (and I’m not trying to denigrate) that watch movies on their TV with internal speakers or can’t fathom why you’d pay more than 30 bucks for headphones or…

I disagree, I think pay once for a game probably matches better with the VEnn diagram of the target audience, which probably are people who don't game enough to buy a whole console/PC, but want to try the latest NBA or big game like Cyberpunk. Paying a one time 60$ for one game seems better than subscription if you play a few hours a week.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#202

Post by ehsankia »

pier25 wrote: post #160

Apple modified Safari so that Amazon was able to launch Luna on iOS: > “We worked with the Safari team to ensure that some of the things that weren't there are there, and that allowed us to kind of get to where we are today,” Luna head of engineering and technology George Tsipolitis said. https://www.engadget.com/luna-amazon-cloud-gaming-interview-...

I was really surprised to see "iOS" in the promotional stuff, considering game streaming on AppStore has been a huge issue in the past few months. Turns out, another Apple team has been helping them bypass the AppStore entirely!

I'm surprised Stadia on iOS is not out yet, considering iOS 14 adds vp9 and by some account, it actually works right now if you spoof your user agent. Maybe very soon.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#203

Post by ehsankia »

echelon wrote: post #2

This was always Amazon's play with Twitch. Amazon will be able to make a much more compelling attempt at the market than Google with Stadia. I still worry about these streaming platforms. Ease of use goes up, but it turns the industry into a subscription economy. Maybe attention fulfillment maps better to subscription than to purchase, as there's less buyer's remorse? I still don't like it.

> This was always Amazon's play with Twitch

Then they're pretty damn slow at making it, considering Stadia's first demo came out almost 2 years ago.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#204

Post by ehsankia »

mraza007 wrote: post #184

Looks direct competitor to Google’s stadia Just out of curiosity how does cloud gaming works and don’t we need high bandwidth for that

Stadia needs roughly 20mbps, which these days is fairly average for most places in the world. Actually data transfer can become an issue if you don't have unlimited data transfer and play more than a few hours a day. 720p is 4.5gb per hour, whereas 1080p is 9gb. 4K is even higher.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#205

Post by ehsankia »

kumarvvr wrote: post #180

Interesting to note that the controller connects to Amazon servers directly. Is that something new or has it been done before?

Yup Stadia did it first, it actually makes a significant difference because bluetooth is quite slow, which is also why you can't really use bluetooth headphones for gaming. It connects directly through wifi so you can quickly switch between PC, chromecast and android without connecting it to any individual device.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#206

Post by ec664 »

ehsankia wrote: post #198
CGamesPlay wrote: post #178

I'm not sure I would get back on one of these. I used OnLive back in the day, but now I can't play those games any more. It was a subscription with lock-in, and now that it's out of business I can't even choose to be locked in. Now, I have recently started playing on GeForce NOW, nVidia's offering. However there it's much closer to an EC2 model: I'm renting a machine, and I log into my Steam profile and play games th…

If you've used GFN, then you know that most game use Steam Cloud so your saves aren't locked in. Stadia has also claimed they let you export your save files.

Except it's notoriously flaky. I've lost several save games and support has said everything from I'm lying, it's my router, and ghosting me. Can't use a provider that doesn't take data protection seriously.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#207

Post by ineedasername »

freehunter wrote: post #188
CGamesPlay wrote: post #178

I'm not sure I would get back on one of these. I used OnLive back in the day, but now I can't play those games any more. It was a subscription with lock-in, and now that it's out of business I can't even choose to be locked in. Now, I have recently started playing on GeForce NOW, nVidia's offering. However there it's much closer to an EC2 model: I'm renting a machine, and I log into my Steam profile and play games th…

I have tons of PC games I "own" but can't play anymore. One of my favorite tycoon games was Sid Meier's Railroads, but it can't run stable on any machine with more than 4GB of RAM. Sure I could spin up a Windows XP VM but that's not a reasonable solution in any way. Same thing with Full Spectrum Warrior, just doesn't run on modern OSes. I can play Unreal Tournament 2003 or older Call of Duty games or... if I can find…

PC gaming has always had an element of troubleshooting and workarounds to get them working on some systems. I play lot's of old games, and it's rare if ever that I can't find patches or workarounds to get them working.

It's also not quite the same to compare something you definitely could get working with more effort (like spinning up an XP VM) to something where there is literally no way at all, like when OnLive went away.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#208

Post by fomine3 »

gamblor956 wrote: post #161
Aeolun wrote: post #143

Ah, of course. Only in the US. For a change it would be nice if they started literally anywhere else.

You mean, anywhere other than the world's largest unitary single-language market not subject to government censorship? Europe has too many languages. China requires you to give up 50% or more of your company for the "privilege" of doing business there, plus you must deal with censorship with respect to the type of content your game(s) can include. India has an extremely heavy tax burden. Japan and Korea are too small…

Is supporting multiple language matter? They should localize apps and games as usual. I suspect that fast internet connection and putting servers near users are matter. Seoul and Tokyo looks good place for connection and population density.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#209

Post by ineedasername »

mdoms wrote: post #109
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bear in mind: While very few consumers benefit from cloud-based gaming, the outcome of dragging consumers over to it for businesses is huge. Why sell software and hardware once when you can sell software, the hardware it's hosted on, and the support and services to manage that software and hardware every single month . It's why companies like Adobe and Microsoft have tried to push their main, relatively static[1] sof…

You may speak for yourself but you most certainly do not speak for every consumer, regardless of how many superlatives you use. I, for one, prefer the subscription model for some things. I like that I can dip my toes in and out of the Photoshop ecosystem without having to shell out hundreds up front. I prefer to rent Netflix for a month rather than purchasing DVDs or Blurays I may watch once or twice. And when cloud…

I found Adobe opaque and difficult to work with. Subscriptions are presented with an $x/month but you have to pay for a year. Cancelling, at least at the time I last dealt with them, was also very difficult: I paid for a year, but then wanted to cancel auto-renewal: Nope! I'd have to wait until the last 30 days of my subscription. Since then I've decided to suck it up and deal with Gimp and Inkscape even if they lack some features and feel a bit clunky at times.

Re: Luna – Cloud gaming service

#210

Post by ineedasername »

teen wrote: post #163
AlphaSite wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem with Cloud gaming is the latency. And the network requirements push it to solving a problem for a very small subset of users (games which where latency doesn't matter can usually dont need cloud gaming).

The primary issue is the games catalog, something neither Amazon or Google can crack a dent in

Yes. All I want is a latency-optimized EC2 (I'm no twitch gamer, This is where NVidia went wrong. They're basically providing that sort of thing, but wanted to present it as their own game service as though all the other storefronts were just backend plumbing. Not a bad consumer experience, but also not what publishers are licensing when they stick their game on Steam.
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