Is Amazon Prime Worth It For Gamers?

When most people think of Amazon Prime [Affiliate Link], there's a good chance their minds immediately connect the service to free two-day shipping and/or Amazon Prime Video. However, Prime does much more than ship things to you faster or let you watch movies and TV shows at home. There are plenty of services that Prime provides gamers that might just make the $99-a-year price tag ($49 a year for students) worth it for them, too.

Game Discounts

Back in September of last year, Amazon announced that Prime subscribers would receive exclusive discounts on pre-orders and newly released games. The exact discount is 20% off, and it applies to only pre-orders of the boxed edition of games. The discount lasts for another two weeks after the game is launched [Editor's note: as of 8/15/17, this is no longer the case), meaning you don't have to commit to a game before it's released and you can wait to read reviews for the game before you buy it. Plus, thanks to Prime's free release-date delivery, your game will arrive in the mail the day that it comes out, not two days after. While this isn't always the case, personally I've always received my games on time.

Thanks to Prime, I get almost all of my AAA games at a discount for my PlayStation 4. While I used to prefer digital over physical, I found the discount to be substantial enough for me to begin ordering physical copies of games again. The 20% discount for most games adds up over time, allowing me to justify more purchases like a true capitalist.

However, while I might see the fact that the Prime discount only covers boxed editions of games as a drawback, I understand that many people feel the exact opposite. In that case, that's just another reason why Prime might be worth it for you.

Twitch Prime

Another benefit of Amazon Prime is the relatively new service, Twitch Prime, which also began in September of last year. Twitch Prime offers three main benefits:

First, Twitch Prime allows you one free channel subscription on Twitch every 30 days. Second, when you link your Amazon Prime account to your Twitch account, ads will no longer play during streams. And lastly, Twitch Prime provides additional free loot, like skins for games like Hearthstone or Smite. Sometimes entire games are offered for free for a limited time, like when The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2 were free in February 2017.

If you're a regular Twitch viewer, all of these benefits can add to your overall experience with the streaming platform. While I don't watch Twitch very often, when I do, it's always the same person. Thanks to Twitch Prime, I was able to subscribe to that channel and show my support for his content, something I would have never done before.

The occasional free games are another added bonus. While the Banner Saga series might not be your thing, it's hard to argue against free additional stuff. Sony and Microsoft offer free games to their subscribers every month, and thanks to this service, I've been able to try many games I would have otherwise never given a chance.

Amazon Prime Video

I'd be remiss if I didn't add that Amazon Prime Video is something that could potentially benefit gamers just as much as, if not more than, other consumers. While this service is available on other devices, you can download the Amazon Prime Video app on your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. I use this service exclusively on my PS4, so while it might not be designed for gamers only, consoles are increasingly becoming more and more of an all-around entertainment hub, and Prime Video is a large part of that.

So, is it worth it?

The final question is up to you to decide. At the end of the day, Amazon doesn't only offer the services listed above, but many, many more as well. See here for everything that Prime offers.

However, even if what was above was all that Prime offered, it might still be worth it. While the price tag isn't cheap, think about all of the money that you'd save in a year in game discounts alone. Before long, the service might just pay for itself, making all additional Prime services just icing on the cake.

If you're interested in getting Amazon Prime, you can sign up for it here [Affiliate Link].

Do you have Amazon Prime? What do you think of the benefits it offers gamers? Let us know in the comments below!