Luna, Amazon’s video game cloud-streaming service, is shifting gears. While the service will still feature AAA video games like Fallout and Dead Island, the retail giant has announced new plans to “reimagine” Luna as a way for families to play casual, easier-to-learn games using their phones. And the first one of these games Amazon revealed is a courtroom comedy game featuring an AI-powered Snoop Dogg as the judge. Hmm.
Launched back in 2020, Amazon Luna followed in the footsteps of Google’s video game streaming service, Stadia. But unlike Stadia, which died back in 2022, Amazon has continued to support Luna, offering a subscription service with access to over 100 games as well as giving Prime members a small catalog of games to play for free. It’s never felt like Luna was a big hit, though, despite some publishers like Ubisoft and EA continuing to support it. Well, Amazon seems to have admitted it wasn’t working, because the company just revealed big plans to rebrand Luna as a more casual experience built around couch co-op and new, unique games.
On October 1, Amazon announced that later this year, Luna will change. While the service will still allow you to buy and play AAA games, Amazon is going to target, as explained in a press release about the pivot, “the 100s of millions of people who want to experience the magic of playing games on the big screen but feel left out” due to games being too complicated or consoles being too expensive. Amazon’s play is to turn Luna into a place where friends and family members can gather around the TV, pull out their phones, and play less complicated games together. If this sounds a lot like Jackbox, well, congratulations, you too can be an Amazon Gaming executive.
The big centerpiece of this rebrand is Game Night, a new Amazon-developed hub within Luna that will offer a variety of Jackbox-like, family-friendly, casual games. Players just scan a QR code using their phone, and a few seconds later, they’re having a great time playing… a Snoop Dogg courtroom game powered by AI?
Yeah, the big game revealed today is Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg, which Amazon describes as an “AI‑powered improv courtroom game where players invent outrageous characters, spin wild stories, and do whatever it takes to defend their testimonies before Judge Snoop Dogg.” Gather around, grandma, pull out your Cricket Wireless smartphone, and let’s yell at an AI-powered recreation of a famous rapper who has, let’s say, made some bad choices in recent years.
Will this big pivot work out? I have no idea. A lot of this pitch reminds me of the same stuff Google said about Stadia and what Intellivision promised about the disaster that is the Amico console. Maybe Amazon will find success where others haven’t? Maybe. I mean, it’s not like Luna’s setting the world on fire at the moment. We’ll find out when the big pivot happens later this year.