Amazon Prime will no longer offer 20 percent discounts on video game pre-orders, the company announced today.
Amazon will now offer $10 in Amazon credit when pre-ordering select games instead of the existing discount, which applied to all physical pre-orders on the site. All eligible pre-orders placed before Aug. 28 will still recent the 20 percent discount, but after that, the new benefit will be in place.
With the 20 percent discount, customers could pre-order brand new full price $59.99 releases for $47.99, a $12 difference before applicable taxes.
Amazon-owned video game streaming site Twitch also revealed that Twitch Prime members will no longer receive ad-free viewing with the service that comes free with Amazon Prime. Members with monthly subscriptions will continue to get ad-free viewing until Oct. 15.—Broadcasters still have the option to enable ad-free viewing for their subscribers.
This move could be directly related to the recent news that Twitch CEO Emmett Shear set a target of $1 billion in ad revenue for Twitch, according to Bloomberg. That’s a pretty steep climb, considering much of Twitch’s userbase uses technology like AdBlock to prevent ads from even popping up while watching streams.
The changes to both of the popular services have been met with disappointment and resistance across social media channels, especially considering the price for a yearly subscription to Amazon Prime recently climbed to $119, up from $99.
Published: Aug 21, 2018 12:40 am