Amazon Fire TVs are getting their own cloud gaming hub dubbed Games on Fire TV. The app is similar to the Samsung Gaming Hub, though its focus is specifically on Amazon Luna rather than other streaming services.
According to a blog post that Amazon published on Wednesday, Games on Fire TV allows players to stream cloud games from their TV. If you’re already subscribed to Amazon Luna, the company’s cloud gaming service, you can stream games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, play a rotating selection of games for free every month on the Prime Gaming Channel, or download games from the Fire TV app store. The games that are currently available on the Prime Gaming Channel include League of Legends, Fallout 76, Total War: Warhammer II, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
The hub will also bring new game trailers and Twitch streams, which can be accessed regardless of whether you’re using a game controller or a Fire TV Stick remote. If you have an Amazon Fire TV and want to jump into Games on Fire TV, pair any Bluetooth wireless controller of your choice — PlayStation 5 DualSense, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, etc. — and you can play your games right away. The app can be accessed via the Games section under the Find tab.
Amazon only mentions Luna integration, so it seems like the app won’t include services like Xbox Game Pass or GeForce Now at launch. It’s unclear if Amazon plans to bring more services to the app down the line, or if its just intended to support its own services.
Amazon’s improvement on cloud gaming comes on the heels of Google Stadia’s looming shutdown in January 2023 and other gaming companies coming up with their own cloud gaming handheld systems. Razer collaborated with Verizon and Qualcomm to create the Razer 5G Edge, and Logitech came out with the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld. Games on Fire TV is just an added bonus for those who have Amazon Luna.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.