Amazon’s gaming streaming service does one thing right that no one else is doing

Amazon’s now in the game streaming service, with the release of Luna. I just got access, and took advantage of the opportunity to buy the Luna Controller, and oh boy am I glad I did. See, Amazon has one thing that absolutely blows the rest of the game streaming services out of the water – the first time user experience.

You know how when you order a Kindle, you can get it automatically attached and signed into your Amazon account, so you don’t have to set anything up when you unbox it for the first time? Well, the Luna Controller has the same instant setup and had me gaming within seconds.

Literally seconds. It took longer to download the iOS App for the Luna Controller, longer to open the pull-tab security seal on the box and find some rechargeable batteries, longer to figure out that the iOS app not opening was probably because it found out the controller was already linked so it didn’t have to do anything.

All I had to do was hold the Luna button on the controller to turn it on, and it linked up to my WiFi and the Amazon Luna service. I was playing on the Luna app on my PC with similar feeling latency than my connects-via-glitchy-dongle Xbox One controller. That’s it, no “press another button, then this button on the dongle, then another button on the controller,” no fighting with Bluetooth pairing, nothing but instant gaming.

I mean, the Luna controller has Bluetooth and works via USB as well, but you don’t need it to use the Luna service, just if you want to use it for other platforms. I’ll have some longer thoughts on the actual controller once I’ve used it for a while, as well as the service itself, but for now, the initial setup phase was so easy I thought something was actually wrong.

Have any thoughts on this? Interested in game streaming from Amazon? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• After a rocky start, it seems Amazon is still interested in making video games
• Google is abandoning its Stadia gaming studios to focus on the platform, so they say
• Someone managed to stream games through Microsoft’s xCloud on a freaking refrigerator
• Review: Nuu Mobile X6 smartphone – perfect for mobile game streaming

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.