GOG and Amazon ink deal to bring the storefront to the cloud

Spinning out of the agreement that the PC gaming shop and Amazon already have in place, GOG is heading to Luna’s cloud.

Getting cloudy

For those who don’t know, GOG and Amazon already do a fair shake of business together. The PC (and Mac) gaming shop has regular redemption opportunities, as goes the Prime Gaming service, with more than a few ‘GOG games’ being served up as monthly bonuses to subscribers of Amazon’s gaming wing. With that in mind, something like the just-announced deal we mentioned above shouldn’t come as a shock, though it’s admittedly still a little surprising.

Apparently though, under the deal players will be able to buy games on GOG and have an additional method to actually play them, via Amazon’s “Luna” cloud-based service. Naturally, you’ll have to have a Luna subscription (included with Prime Gaming) to make use of the gimmick, and said games will have to be available via Luna to play on top of that.

GOG clarified the plan a bit, in a press release that went out earlier today:

Through Luna players will be allowed to play every game already owned on GOG (and that is also available on Luna). There’s absolutely no requirement to purchase anything twice – once bought on GOG, it belongs to the owner forever. Moreover, it works both ways – games available on GOG can be purchased through Luna’s client, seamlessly integrating into the store library.

In other words, buying games on GOG (directly on our service or via Luna) will give players the best of both worlds – enjoying them on Luna’s cloud gaming service, as well as via offline installers or GOG GALAXY. All DRM-free benefits of owning games on GOG will still be there, offering more ways to play your favorite titles.

GOG press release

By way of this new setup, players will be able to access participating GOG titles through any of Luna’s already-available options. That means playing via “PCs, smart phones, tablets, Fire TV devices and smart TVs” is all on the table. And naturally you’ll also be able to do that playing with an Xbox or PlayStation controller, mouse and keyboard, or Luna’s own pad, since the service supports all of the above.

According to GOG, the deal will offer wins for all parties, with publishers and developers (who can opt-out if they wish) having a new avenue to make sales, and fans getting new ways to play their games. Speaking of the latter, longtime GOG-ites won’t have to fret, as nothing is changing with the company’s DRM-free policy.

As long as you buy them through GOG or GOG’s Luna presence, your games will still be ‘your games’, even with the Amazon deal in place.