The days of shelling out hundreds of pounds for a new console or gaming PC may be numbered, according to Amazon’s head of gaming, Jeff Gattis, who has told the BBC he believes rising hardware costs will push millions of players towards streaming games online.
Gattis said the technology has developed significantly in recent years, making cloud gaming more viable than it used to be, but conceded that some people will still want to buy their own hardware. His comments come as Amazon announced it is integrating its cloud gaming service Luna into the Prime Video app, placing it alongside shows and films under a new “Games” tab.
“Amazon gaming boss Jeff Gattis says rising hardware costs will push players to streaming, as Luna joins Prime Video.”
Cloud gaming has long been touted as the future of video games, but previous efforts have failed to gain widespread adoption, most notably the high-profile closure of Google Stadia in 2023. While giants Sony and Microsoft already offer cloud gaming as part of their subscription services, players have continued to favour installing games on their own machines.
Gattis argued there is still a huge untapped audience beyond traditional console owners. “There are somewhere between two-and-a-half and three billion people who play games around the world, but only a fraction of those own dedicated gaming hardware,” he said. Streaming, he added, could help people who do not want to spend “hundreds – or even thousands – of pounds” on a console or gaming PC.
Recent years have seen the price of gaming hardware climb as the cost of components rises. Sony and Microsoft have increased the cost of their consoles, while Valve priced its new Steam Machine from £879.
“As hardware becomes more expensive, and as streaming technology continues to improve, I think you’ll naturally see more people asking whether they actually need that dedicated device,” Gattis said.
Christopher Dring, editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Game Business, said there is likely an audience of people looking to play high-end games like the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 “but are put off by all the technical requirements”. However, he noted that streaming still faces several obstacles, including the fact that many high-end games still require a controller.
Amazon Luna is already included as a Prime subscription, but has largely existed as a separate destination. Now users will be able to access it via the “Games” tab on Prime Video on Fire TVs in the US and UK. Dring cautioned that the sticking point for many big games publishers may still be the subscription model, due to the impact it could have on traditional sales.
Whether streaming finally takes off may depend on how quickly the industry can solve its remaining technical hurdles – and whether publishers are willing to risk their traditional sales models.