Amazon may be changing up its Prime offerings for gamers.
According to an email provided by a MobileSyrup reader, Prime members will no longer receive a 10 percent discount on physical video game preorders. This change will come into effect starting August 28th, 2018.
However, all eligible pre-orders placed before August 28th will still receive a 10 percent discount.
Additionally, game streaming service Twitch is changing its Prime service as well. Twitch Prime, which is included in Amazon Prime, provides Twitch users with a variety of bonuses. Free games, in-game loot and other features are staples of the service.
However, ad-free viewing, one of the biggest features, is going away on September 14th.
Twitch Prime members can still get ad-free viewing for specific channels using the free monthly subscription they get through Prime. Subscribing to a channel with ad-free viewing for subscribers will net you the ad-free experience.
That change comes as part of a push towards the Twitch-specific subscription service, Twitch Turbo. Among other things, the $8.99 USD ($11.73 CAD) per month subscription service offers ad-free viewing.
I’ve always found Twitch Prime to be fairly high-value considering it’s built into Amazon Prime. At no extra cost, Amazon Prime members get the benefits of Twitch Prime. That’s a considerable amount of stuff.
While some will certainly lament the loss of ad-free viewing, I think the more critical blow to Prime is the 10 percent discount. It was a great option for gamers looking to save a bit of cash on preorders.
We’ve reached out to Amazon Canada for comment regarding the changes.
Thanks for the tip Godot.
