Amazon is apparently retooling Twitch a bit today as it’s just announced Prime Gaming, which is basically the same as the Twitch Prime, with its suite of free stuff and drops and access specific to gaming that comes along as part of the Amazon Prime membership.
“With today’s launch of Prime Gaming, Amazon Prime members can now enjoy tons of free, exclusive content for their favorite games every month. Prime members can claim new in-game content for Grand Theft Auto Online, Red Dead Online, Apex Legends, EA SPORTS FIFA 20, League of Legends, and more than 20 other popular PC, console, and mobile games, worth hundreds of dollars in value. Plus, they can claim a collection of PC games for free every month that are theirs to keep forever. […] Prime members have access to content including exclusive skins for Apex Legends, a Player Pick Pack for EA SPORTS FIFA 20, and Exotic weapons and more for Destiny 2, and brand-new items for Roblox are coming later this month. To claim these Prime Gaming benefits, and many others, just log in with your Prime membership.”
I wonder if this means they’ll finally launch it in India.
The NY Times article on this mentions that this is their second attempt to get into gaming right and they also mention the fact Crucible was a big budget “flop.” This is a strange year when gaming makes the NY Times more than once. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/technology/amazon-video-games-prime-gaming.html?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20200811&instance_id=21168&nl=dealbook®i_id=70949929&segment_id=35760&te=1&user_id=f619ec87b2a8f251b07c567994a5fc1f
I have Prime, so I downloaded the Games app. It’s completely bare bones. A listing of games, some of which are free to claim for a period of time, a few screenshots. And that’s it. No game descriptions, no game categories, nada.
(In addition, Amazon dared to address me by my actual name and didn’t allow me to create a gamer tag. Since a lot of games take your app name and use it indiscriminately, I consider this simply rude for Amazon not to provide a way to change your tag.)
Based on the games, I’m guessing the target audience is the robust 12-18 and 19-25 categories.
The free packs do indeed include FIFA, as well as Destiny 2, TERA, and a smattering of mobile titles.
All in all, a pretty lacklustre offering, aimed at the under 30s, and really only so-so for them I’d say with the possible exception of Doom Eternal and Warframe.
Left me underwhelmed.
But then it’s going back into development until ’22.
Headline is wrong. Prime Gaming, like all the other Prime _____
Step 1 to splitting the services so they can charge more later?
(I really don’t trust any large company anymore. In case that wasn’t obvious.)
Maybe. I have been wondering for a while if once the Amazon logo stamp starts going on everything, will there be a crackdown on all content not exactly suitable for children. <-Not in my eyes mind you, but ya know how this goes.