Late last year, Amazon Luna and Ubisoft deepened their partnership by allowing subscribers to stream the developer’s games that they already own on PC. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that Amazon has chosen to team up with Ubisoft to debut a new feature on its cloud gaming service: The capability to buy games from the platform and not just stream them, Engadget reported.
Subscribers can now purchase select Ubisoft games from the developers portal on Luna, and the selection includes several Assassin’s Creed titles, the Far Cry games, Child of Light, and Watch Dogs.
Customer will be able to purchase any game they want from within Luna, using their Amazon account and as long as their Ubisoft account is linked. The e-commerce giant says subscribers will own the license for any game they buy, and they’ll be able to play either in Luna-enabled devices or on a computer if they download the title for offline play via Ubisoft Connect PC launchers. The list of Luna-enabled devices include Fire TV devices, Chromebooks, and phones.
9to5Google reported that Amazon Luna has been struggling to some extent with big library shuffles, but the cloud gaming platform is now introducing a big new feature – the ability to buy games.
According to 9to5Google, with most cloud gaming platforms available today, everything is tied behind a subscription. Xbox Game Pass has a rotating library of games that you can stream from the cloud, but you don’t really own any of the titles that can be streamed. GeForce Now and several similar services take a different approach, with the subscription used to access the cloud platform, and all of the games being ones that you’ve purchased on PC.
Amazon sent the following to 9to5Google:
At Luna, we’re always trying to find new ways to bring more games to more people. Which is why we’re excited to announce that customers can now buy individual games on Luna. Now, customers have more ways to buy Ubisoft games like Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, and playing on their Fire TV, smartphone, and any of our growing list of compatible devices.
GameDeveloper asked the question: “What does Ubisoft have to gain from the cloud streaming market?
According to GameDeveloper, in 2018 Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told investors that cloud streaming would help bring the company’s triple-A games to more players. His comments were particularly aimed at players who only owned mobile devices, not expensive game consoles or high-end PCs.
Notably, Guillemot also said that at the time that the company would prefer to stick with a traditional marketplace model to sell copies of streamable games, the same as buying them for a full price on a platform like Steam. The company seems to be sticking to that plan after five years of experimenting in the market.
…If Ubisoft can ride that awareness (players awareness of cloud streaming platforms) it will be able to develop bigger audiences – and revenue streams – for games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and other upcoming titles.
In my opinion, people who have Amazon Luna, and/or have a mobile device or PC, could find themselves not just buying, but owning, the Ubisoft games that are being offered. They will own the games they purchase, and not have to worry about it disappearing from a gaming console.