Amazon Announces Plans To Make Luna Streaming Services Better With Family, Retro Channels And More

Amazon Luna was released one year ago, and the retail giant continues to support and improve the streaming platform based on player feedback. Today, the company acknowledged that it "learned so much" from subscribers so far, and with their feedback in mind, plans to "make Luna even better" by expanding it to more devices, with more games.

Starting now, Fire tablet owners in the US can start streaming games. All they need is a compatible Fire tablet and the Luna app. The games support touch screen controls as well as the Luna controller or any supported gamepad.

One of the new channels launching today is the Family Channel, which offers a "carefully curated" group of 35+ games that are appropriate for younger players. The channel costs $3/month and includes titles like SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated, Garfield Kart: Furious Racing, and Transformers: Battlegrounds. Skatebird will come to the channel later this month.

Amazon also announced that Far Cry 6 (October 7) and Riders Republic (October 28) will launch day and date on Amazon Luna in October, while Rainbow Six Extraction will come to Luna early next year. These games are part of the Ubisoft+ Channel, and everyone who signs up by September 29 can lock in at the existing $15/month price before the cost goes up to $18/month on September 30.

Looking ahead, Amazon said it will launch a "retro-gaming" focused channel "soon" with games from Atari and SNK, among others. Some of the games in the channel will include Another World, Dragon's Lair, and King of Fighters.

Another big announcement is a new co-op feature for Amazon Luna. The new Luna Couch option lets you play games like Team Sonic Racing and Overcooked 2 (among others) cooperatively even if you're not in the same room. Perhaps the most exciting part of this is that only the host needs to be a Luna subscriber--the guest can play for free. The host creates a game session, which generates a Luna Couch code that a friend can use.

Amazon also announced that all Amazon Prime members in the US can play four games on Luna at no cost for the next week (September 9-15), including Resident Evil 7, Metro Exodus, Katamari Damacy Reroll, and Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. Prime subscribers can already request an Early Access invite for Luna, but now they can simply jump in through the Luna website.

Finally, Amazon announced a new bundle that comes with a Fire TV Stick 4K Max and the Luna Controller for $99 USD.