Amazon believes the future of gaming could increasingly shift toward the cloud as gamers face rising hardware costs and better streaming technology.
Jeff Gattis, Amazon’s head of gaming, says cloud gaming has reached a point where it offers a realistic alternative for many players who may not want to invest in expensive gaming consoles or high-end PCs. While dedicated gaming hardware is unlikely to disappear anytime soon, he believes more consumers will begin questioning whether they need to own it at all.
Cloud gaming allows users to play games over the internet without downloading them or owning powerful hardware. Instead, games run on remote servers and are streamed to compatible devices such as smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, or laptops.
According to Gattis, the global gaming community is much larger than the market for traditional consoles. He estimates that between 2.5 and 3 billion people play video games worldwide, yet only a relatively small percentage own dedicated gaming systems. By removing the need for costly hardware, cloud gaming could make premium gaming experiences accessible to millions of new players.
His remarks come as Amazon expands the reach of its Luna cloud gaming platform by integrating it into the Prime Video app. Rather than existing as a standalone service, Luna will now appear under a dedicated “Games” tab on Prime Video for Fire TV users in the UK and the US, making it easier for subscribers to discover and launch games.
The timing aligns with a broader trend across the gaming industry. The cost of gaming hardware has steadily increased in recent years as manufacturers grapple with higher production expenses. Companies including Sony and Microsoft have raised console prices, while gaming PCs continue to become more expensive due to rising component costs.
Despite the growing appeal of cloud gaming, industry observers believe several hurdles remain.
Christopher Dring, editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Game Business, says there is likely to be demand from players who want to experience major releases such as Grand Theft Auto VI without purchasing costly hardware. However, he points out that many premium games still require controllers, and reliable high-speed internet remains essential for a smooth cloud gaming experience.
Business concerns also continue to shape the market. Dring notes that many game publishers still earn considerably more from traditional game sales than from subscription-based services, making them cautious about shifting their biggest titles to cloud platforms. He also questions whether players would be willing to pay full retail prices for games that are streamed rather than owned.
Cloud gaming itself is not a new concept. It has been promoted for years as the next major evolution of the gaming industry, but previous efforts have struggled to achieve mainstream success. One of the most notable examples was Google Stadia, which launched in 2019 before being shut down in 2023 after failing to attract enough users.
Joost van Dreunen, a professor of games business at NYU Stern, believes technical limitations continue to slow adoption. Issues such as internet latency, inconsistent streaming quality, and the absence of a sustainable long-term business model have prevented cloud gaming from becoming the dominant way people play.
Even so, he expects the rising cost of consoles to gradually encourage more gamers to explore alternative ways of accessing high-end titles. While he does not foresee an immediate shift away from traditional hardware, he believes cloud gaming will continue to gain momentum as streaming technology improves and gaming becomes increasingly accessible across multiple devices.
For now, consoles remain the preferred choice for many players. But with hardware becoming more expensive and cloud services growing more capable, streaming games may finally be moving closer to becoming a mainstream option rather than just an industry promise.
