Amazon's head of gaming, Jeff Gattis, has told the BBC that rising hardware costs will push more players towards streaming games online rather than buying consoles, as the technology becomes increasingly viable. His comments coincide with Amazon integrating its cloud gaming service Luna into the Prime Video app, placing games alongside shows and films in an effort to tap into a vast audience beyond traditional console owners. Cloud gaming has repeatedly been touted as the future of the industry, but past attempts, notably Google Stadia, failed to gain traction, and it remains uncertain whether this latest push will succeed where others faltered.

Gattis noted that of the two-and-a-half to three billion people who play games worldwide, only a fraction own dedicated hardware, and pointed to escalating console and PC prices, including Valve's new Steam Machine at £879, as a driver towards streaming. Industry commentators were more cautious: Christopher Dring of The Game Business said high-end titles still often require a controller, while publishers may be wary of subscription models cutting into more lucrative traditional sales, and NYU Stern's Joost van Dreunen cited latency issues and an unproven business model as ongoing barriers to mass adoption.