[Opinion] Here’s why I’m not worried if Amazon Luna snatched up Assassin’s Creed Mirage exclusivity

Update: I’ve changed that title of the article to better reflect that this was an opinion piece. Amazon Luna does not have exclusive rights to Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and there is no update on this situation yet. I’ve also changed “that” to “if” in the title to reflect the fact that this has not been confirmed. We regret the mistake and will keep the rest of the article intact

Over the past few weeks, a lot of you have been pretty upset at the news that Assassin’s Creed Mirage was confirmed as not coming to Google Stadia at this time. While I understand this frustration and the knee-jerk reaction it invokes in us all, I wanted to take a little bit of time today and discuss why I’m not in the least bit upset at this news.

Before anyone comments stating that I’m a Stadia shill who’s trying to spin everything bad for Google into something good, keep in mind that as a game developer and an industry analyst, I’ve thought through this at many angles. My love for Stadia as a consumer really has nothing to do with my interest in discussing this today, just the truth of the matter that many have failed to see.

Stadia disappears from Mirage advertisements

Yes, it’s true that the game was initially announced to have been launching on Stadia alongside its console counterparts, but shortly afterward, the cloud gaming logo was scratched off of all advertisements and replaced with another – Amazon Luna. Wait, what? Do you mean the Luna that I totally forgot existed until now? Yep.

If you’re also thinking that this is a super odd thing to slap on the front of a AAA release that’s supposed to redefine and revive the Assassin’s Creed series, then you’re not alone. Luna has had the same ups and downs as Stadia, but when it comes to cloud gaming, everyone knows that Google made that path walkable.

Ubisoft is not loyal to Amazon, it’s loyal to money

Think about it – Ubisoft is not loyal to Amazon and has no reason to be. In fact, Ubisoft+ is available on both platforms but gets no special treatment on either. Also, let’s try not to forget that while Stadia is in the spotlight for not having Mirage at launch, Nvidia’s GeForce NOW will also miss out on it at first. Why is no one talking about Nvidia?

Being that Luna isn’t even available in the UK or in Canada – both places where Stadia is, in fact, available – do you really think that Ubisoft would opt for a more restricted availability if money weren’t weighing down the other end of the see-saw? Add to that the fact that Luna only allows you to stream your games in 1080p while Stadia has 4k compatibility, and the deal simply doesn’t add up for Ubi unless there are fat stacks on the table.

Twitch vs. YouTube

Ever since Google started going after Amazon’s neck for game streaming and its audience – doing everything in its power to steal Twitch’s audience and bring them to YouTube – both companies have been at war over ways to sweeten the deal for gamers. If you look at PlayStation and Xbox, you’ll notice that exclusive games have long since been a means to do exactly that, and I can see cloud game streaming platforms mimicking that model pretty closely because, well, it works.

It’s for these reasons and more that it’s obvious Amazon must have paid for timed exclusivity of the massive franchise, and you know what? That’s okay! No one gets mad at Sony or Microsoft for doing the same thing (unless you’re PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan), and it’s been a standard practice for decades. I say let’s let Luna have its spotlight with Mirage, and then we’ll all watch it drop on Stadia and GeForce NOW a while down the road and laugh as we look back at this whole situation.

This is still a win for gamers

Need I remind you that any new release AAA games with massive budgets coming to cloud platforms is a win for gamers? Need I remind you that anything positive for Amazon, Google, Microsoft, or Nvidia is a win for the future of cloud gaming? Most publishers don’t see cloud gaming as anything but the icing on the cake for their games, no matter how much it may be the future.

Let’s not play one side or the other and remain unified because, in the end, the games and the fun we have with them are all that matter, irrespective of the platform they release on. I may have forgotten Luna was really a thing, but that’s because I’ve been enjoying Stadia and GeForce for so long and I only have so much bandwidth (har). However, you’d best believe that I’m going to log in to it and play some Potion Permit this weekend to support indie devs and cloud gaming as a whole – that game looks so fun!