Amazon Prime subscribers, you knew it was only a matter of time before your online retailer of choice snatched away the 20% discount you’ve used to save on all your physical Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch games. Mark your calendar for August 28th. After that, Amazon says it will no longer discount all physical games Amazon Prime subscribers purchase.
Amazon announced its plans to end the 20% discount earlier today, and it’s replacing the 20% off blanket discount with another offer. If you have Amazon Prime and you pre-order a game, expect a $10 credit to be added to your account after you place your order. Of course, there’s a catch: you only get the $10 credit on “select titles.”
That’s one hell of a downgrade considering where gaming discounts stood this time last year. If you pre-ordered at Amazon or Best Buy, you automatically saved 20% on the cost of your game, no matter what that game was. So a $60 game cost just $47.99. All you needed was a subscription to Amazon Prime or Best Buy Gamers Club Unlocked to claim these savings.
It’s worth noting that all-digital gamers aren’t losing out anything. Amazon and Best Buy’s discounts were a way of attracting a shrinking pool of people buying games on disc. You couldn’t claim either discount if you purchased a digital game anyway. That’s why this change in policy won’t cause me to cancel my Amazon Prime subscription.
That being said, definitely consider canceling Amazon Prime if this was one of your main reasons for subscribing. After the recent price hike, that’s $119.99 you can spend on whatever other vices you have. If you planned to buy Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Spider-Man, order now.