As if the two day shipping, instant video, Kindle Lending Library, and music services included in Amazon Prime weren’t enough, gamers now have a new reason to get Amazon Prime on tap if they haven’t already done so.
Amazon is adding a 20 percent discount to pre-ordered and newly-released games shipped via the Prime service. If you pre-order a game for day-one delivery or order it within the first two weeks of release, the discount will be automatically applied to any game sold and shipped by Amazon. Amazon notes this is added automatically to any existing pre-orders. If you’re buying a standard $60 game, this comes out to $12 off the price of the game. If you’re buying eight or more retail games a year, the $99 fee for Prime literally pays for itself.
The deal seems to even extend to things like Nintendo amiibo and LEGO Dimensionstoys.
All of this is an attempt to combat growing services like Xbox Live, PlayStation Plus, and EA/Origin Access that put money directly into publisher and platform manufacturer’s pockets without a retail store sitting in the middle. The shift from physical to digital isn’t going to stop, especially not with the constant stream of sales offered across all platforms, but a deal this good will certainly slow things down.