Earlier today we discussed how pre-orders for Insomniac’s upcoming Spider-Man had officially become a thing. Well, it looks like Amazon has caved in and joined Best Buy in eliminating the 20% off on all new video game releases. Additionally, there are some major changes to Twitch Prime as well.

Since things got weird at Amazon and their gaming related offerings, we’ve been trying to keep you in the loop as they are made. Now, things are officially weirder and unfortunately, gamers, you’re about to officially get a little pissed. Trust me we are too and our frustration even showed about the (sort of) being able to pre-order Insomniac’s upcoming Spider-Man title.

Today, Amazon has announced that Twitch Prime and Amazon Prime are changing some of their offers. First off, universal ad-free viewing is no longer apart of your Twitch Prime offer for new members starting on Sept. 14, 2018, and those with monthly subscriptions will continue to have ad-free viewing until October 15, 2018.

But wait, it gets worse. If you’re like many who subscribe annually, you’re getting the ax after your next renewal date – i.e. if you renewed today, you’re good until Aug. 20, 2019, and then your ads will begin, but luckily, there isn’t tons of bad news about this. You won’t see the rest of the services for Twitch Prime change. You’ll still get tons of free content for your games via in-game loot drops for titles like Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Hearthstone, Call of Duty, and plenty more.

You’ll still also get the free monthly games through Twitch Prime, but universal ad-free viewing is completely gone and will no require you to subscribe to Twitch Turbo once your “ad-free” plan rolls over. But not all is bad. Over the year, Amazon/Twitch has clarified that they’ve already given out over $1,000 USD worth of games and loot this year alone. In order to keep adding value to your membership, ads are going to be a big part of their plan. Don’t fear, you will get to keep your one-free sub a month to a channel of your choice and this will remove ads for that channel only. It’s better than nothing, right?

Additionally, 20% off on all pre-orders through the Amazon market is over. Amazon has revealed this major change today in an official email, clarifying these changes. Instead, when you pre-order a select game, you will get $10 Amazon Credit (so roughly 20% off, so in a way, you really aren’t losing it – are you?), and this offer isn’t starting immediately. Amazon has clarified that all eligible pre-orders placed before Aug. 28, 2018, cut-off date will still receive their 20% discount when they release, but there are some stipulations put in place Amazon has pointed out.

First, your $10 USD Amazon Credit, it’s only good for 60 days and it can ONLY be used on select video games sold and shipped by Amazon.com or Amazon Digital Services LLC. This means that third-party sellers or Amazon entities (Amazon Warehouse) will not qualify for this offer, even if they are officially labeled “fulfilled by Amazon.com” or “Prime Eligible”. Secondly, they haven’t clarified what games “aren’t” eligible for this offer. What we are going to assume is, Sony games and remakes/remasters will remain exempt from this offer.

The supplies, according to Amazon will be of limited time availability (i.e. “While supplies last). Secondly, Amazon has clarified for the offer, you will need an Active Amazon Prime membership to receive this offer and it is limited to “one per customer, per item”. What does this mean? You can’t pre-order two games of the same SKU and expect to get the discount. You’ll have to cough up the full cost for the second copy, which sucks for those who order for multiple people (just as we do here at Blast Away the Game Review from time-to-time).

Lastly, Amazon has stated it will take up to 35 Days for your credit to appear and that it must manually be applied to the item of your choosing. While this is a bit of a downer, it’s better than nothing at all and does mean Amazon has made a few changes in order to make offers better (in some ways) and work with brands such as Sony, which hopefully means, we can once again pre-order PlayStation exclusives in the very near future. You can see the official links that Amazon has provided us with as part of our ongoing coverage of their changes to Amazon/Twitch Prime via these two links:

What do you think about these changes? Are they the final nail in the coffin? Let us know in the comments below.

Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Tumblr

Reddit



Like this: Like Loading...