5 Popular Alternatives To Amazon Luna

Way back in 2010, an interesting new startup emerged among the crowded tech landscape: OnLive, a company that would give anyone with a sufficient broadband connection access to the best and brightest PC games, regardless of how powerful their computer was or wasn't. How? By leveraging a server farm and streaming video make it so that the game was actually being run on OnLive's end, with the video streaming to the user's computer in a playable way. You needed a heck of a solid connection to avoid latency issues, but it worked, and it invented a new category: Cloud gaming (or streaming gaming if you prefer). OnLive in its original form is no more, but other streamers followed from major players, one of which is Amazon Luna.

Today, one of the advantages of modern streaming video game services like Luna is that most of them can be used on a wide variety of devices, way beyond PCs. For Luna, this includes browsers on all major computer and smartphone platforms, plus dedicated apps on Amazon Fire TV devices, Amazon Fire tablets, and smart TVs from Samsung and LG. Luna also has some nice additional perks, like certain games being available at no extra charge for Amazon Prime members without a Luna subscription. However, Luna's not the only game in town, just one of the biggest. There are several others, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. With that in mind, let's take a look at five of the most popular alternatives.

One of the best-known cloud gaming services is Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which goes for $19.99 per month. (There are also less expensive alternatives to the default "Ultimate" plan in the form of "Core" for $9.99, "PC" for $11.99, and "Standard" for $14.99 that might be better for you depending on which specific features you need in terms of hardware support and access to online multiplayer.) As of this writing, the game library includes 480 Xbox console titles and 438 PC games. Device support for Xbox Game Pass is impressive, including Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles, PCs via a browser or dedicated app, phones and tablets via a web app, Samsung smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV devices, and Meta Quest VR headsets.

Professional reviews of Xbox Game Pass are stellar. PC Mag scored it four stars out of five and awarded it an Editors' Choice recommendation badge, singling out the selection, release day inclusion of all first-party games, and Ultimate's inclusion of Xbox Live Gold and EA Play. CNET gave it an 8.2 out of 10, praising the "unique[ly]" large suite of features, how it fits into both the console and PC ecosystems, and its large game catalog, while expressing frustration with the degree of turnover in the catalog. And TechRadar rated the Ultimate plan a perfect five stars while giving it an Editor's Choice badge, echoing the other reviews' plaudits while also lamenting how the library was smaller than that of PlayStation Plus.

Sony's PlayStation-branded subscription service has three different tiers, but only one of them, PlayStation Plus Premium, offers a streaming/cloud-based game library. It costs $17.99 per month, $49.99 for 3 months, or $159.99 for a year. Though it also includes other features, such a monthly game PlayStation 5 game downloads, we're here to focus on the streaming component, which includes games for the PlayStation 3, 4, and 5 consoles. Unfortunately, despite streaming being a major part of this top tier, device support for cloud titles is limited to just the PlayStation 5 itself, PlayStation 4, the Windows PC app, and the PlayStation Portal. Unlike most of the competition, unless you're on a PC, you have to be in a specific hardware ecosystem to access PlayStation Plus Premium.

Reviews of the service have been mixed, but leaning positive. Trusted Reviews rated it 3.5 stars out of five, praising the overall catalog covering the entire PlayStation era when factoring in PS1 and PS2 downloads, but was unhappy with the streaming performance and found it less than reliable. IGN seemingly had better luck with the streaming, but felt that the compromises required by streaming weren't worth it for PS3 games, since PS5 hardware should be able to emulate the PS3 just fine. Digital Trends, meanwhile, praised the service in July 2024 for making enough improvements to the point that it's finally living up to its full potential, contrasting with a May 2023 PC Mag review that described streaming performance as "mediocre."

Another option for streaming access to PC games comes from NVIDIA, the venerable GPU maker, which operates GeForce NOW. There are three tiers: Free/ad-supported, with the lowest fidelity, the longest queue times, and a one-hour session length, Performance ($9.99 per month or $49.99 for six) for 1440p graphics, shorter queue times, and six-hour session length, plus Ultimate ($19.99 per month or $99.99 for six), which adds 4K HDR graphics at up to 240 frames per second, the shortest queue times, eight-hour session length, and the most advanced GPU features. Device-wise, it supports all major desktop/notebook OSes, major handheld gaming PCs, smart TVs running Tizen, Google TV, or webOS, and immersive displays from Apple, Meta Quest, and Pico.

NVIDIA touts a library of over 2,000 games, complete with an alphabetical list, but there's a big difference between GeForce Now and services like Luna, Xbox Game Pass, and PlayStation Plus: The games aren't included with your subscription. It's strictly for playing streaming versions of games you already purchased on other stores like Steam, and only ones that are specifically supported — not every game is available, even if you own it.

Reviews of GeForce NOW have been excellent. PC Mag rated it four stars out of five and awarded an Editors' Choice recommendation, praising the overall performance including local-quality graphics, while conceding that not everyone has the internet connection to make the most of it. TechRadar rated it 4.5 stars out of five while awarding its own recommendation badge, praising the number of available games, 4K/high frame rate options, and stability over Wi-Fi.

Next, we have Shadow PC, which gives you unfettered access to a high-end gaming PC via cloud streaming. It's expensive, though: The introductory "Discovery" tier is $19.99 per month and described as geared towards "basic games in HD," with "Minecraft" and "Fortnite" given as examples, before increasing to $29.99 per month for "Boost," which provides access to an Intel Xeon 8 vCores CPU, 12GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GTX 1080 GPU. Finally, there's "Power" for $49.98 per month, described as being for "the most demanding gamers who push the settings of the latest games to the max and dream of ray tracing." Device support includes Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu computers, iOS and Android mobile devices, Apple TV boxes running tvOS, Google TV, and Raspberry Pi using a Pi 4 or better.

Professional reviews of Shadow PC are generally positive, but usually dock points for how expensive it is. PC Mag awarded it four stars out of five and an "Editors' Choice" recommendation badge, praising the different approach and responsive streaming experience. TechRadar gave it the same score, praising the power of the host PC and the quality of the internet connection on that end, albeit while expressing concerns about limited customer support. And PC Gamer scored it 63 out of 100, praising the streaming technology and how well it scales to lower bandwidth internet connections, while taking issue with the CPU topping out at quad-core and the GPU being a mid-range one.

Most streaming game providers are devoted to providing access to more modern fare, but there's an exception: Antstream Arcade, focusing on classic arcade and console games. Antstream touts a library of more than 1,300 games, available via subscription at $3.99 per month, $39.99 per year, or $99.99 for a lifetime pass. Device support is pretty wide, with the list including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, web browsers, Amazon Fire TV devices, and Samsung TVs running the Tizen smart TV operating system. The library includes plenty of legitimate classics, like the arcade version of "Double Dragon," various SNK Neo-Geo titles, the SNES "Super Star Wars" trilogy and other classic console titles, the original arcade "Star Wars" game, and much more.

Professional reviews of Antstream Arcade are numerous and largely positive. TechRadar scored it four stars out of five, singling out the use of legitimate arcade versions of games whenever possible, the size of the library, streaming performance, and the lifetime subscription option, while taking issue with the overly busy UI and the amount of filler games. ZTGD gave it a seven out of 10, seconding the praise for the selection while also singling out the custom-mapped controls for each game and constant additions to the catalog that rarely drop off, though they also felt that the menus are too laggy, and the streaming quality wasn't up to snuff. And in the aggregate, it averages 78 out of 100 on Metacritic, classified as "generally favorable."