Amazon’s cloud gaming platform could see an unexpected boost as console prices continue climbing across the industry.
Jeffrey Gattis, who oversees both Amazon Luna and Amazon Game Studios, shared his outlook in a recent interview, pointing to rising hardware costs as a factor that could push more players toward streaming instead of buying dedicated devices.
Amazon Luna May Benefit From Console Price Hike
Gattis spoke with Christopher Dring of The Game Business shortly after Amazon Luna was added directly into the Prime Video app. Through this integration, Prime members were given access to titles like “EA Sports FC 26,” “Hogwarts Legacy,” and “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle” without needing separate hardware.
According to Gattis, that integration is meant to reach an audience that traditional console and PC games have never really been able to serve.
He explained that cloud gaming has long felt like a solution in search of a problem, largely because dedicated gaming hardware has stayed relatively affordable for most of the industry’s history. That dynamic, he suggested, is starting to shift as component costs climb across the board.
Consoles Are Now Over $1,000 Due to RAM Issue
Gattis <a href="https://gamerant.com/amazon-luna-cloud-expensive-steam-machine-ps6-xbox/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>pointed directly to Valve’s Steam Machine, which launched at over $1,000, along with rumors that next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft could land well above that price point because of the ongoing RAM shortage. He said once hardware reaches that range, more people naturally become part of the consideration set for a cloud gaming solution simply due to the sheer cost of owning dedicated equipment.
The RAM crisis has already pushed prices higher across current-generation hardware. Sony raised the price of the standard disc drive PS5 to $649.99 this past April, with the PS5 Pro reaching $899.99. Microsoft followed with its own price hikes on the Xbox Series X and S in late June, pushing the disc drive Series X 1 TB model to $799.99.
Gattis added that games themselves represent a significant investment too, factoring in the upfront cost of a $70 game alongside the time needed to download it, pair a controller, and spend potentially hundreds of hours completing it.
Amazon Luna Is Not Trying to Replace Consoles
Despite the optimism around rising hardware costs, Gattis was clear that Amazon isn’t positioning Luna as a console replacement. He said the platform’s business is more about reaching new players and expanding the overall market rather than convincing existing console or PC owners to abandon their setups entirely.
Gattis added that the industry doesn’t need another platform competing for the same pool of hardcore players who already have consoles or gaming PCs. Instead, he sees Luna’s opportunity in reaching casual players who have historically been underserved.
Since console and PC manufacturers have mostly built their businesses around dedicated, hardcore gamers rather than more casual audiences, Luna is offering subscribers a chance to enjoy games alongside the perks of being Prime members too.
The Amazon Luna service offers a choice to customers rather than being priced out by the rising hardware and game costs.
