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Amazon is ending its 20 percent Prime discount on video game preorders

Amazon is ending its 20 percent Prime discount on video game preorders

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The company is replacing it with a new $10 credit program

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Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge

Amazon is discontinuing its two-year-old video game preorder discount program for Prime members on August 28th, the company announced today. In its place, Amazon will offer members a $10 credit with a preorder, but only for select titles. The credit will take up to 35 days to arrive. Once activated, customers will have 60 days to put the money toward a separate purchase on Amazon.

Back in July, CNET noted a change to the Prime platform’s Terms of Service that suggested Amazon would change its game discount policy to exclude certain titles. Now, it seems like the company is simply replacing it wholesale.

The Prime video game discount program started in January 2016, and it’s been one of the most substantial discount benefits the platform offers. It gave Prime members up to 20 percent off new video game releases, translating to about $12 off a typical $60 new release. Amazon initially gave Prime members 20 percent off new game purchases within two weeks of release, but it restricted the program in 2017 to preorders only.

Curtailing the program is sure to be met with disappointment among game fans who have resisted the urge to move most of their purchases to digital stores operated by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Amazon’s discount program also kept it fiercely competitive with GameStop. As noted by Polygon, Best Buy shut down a similar 20 percent discount program called Gamers Club, which was unlocked earlier this summer, and replaced it with a $10 credit system.