Amazon Prime New Video Game Discounts Are Gone

Amazon Prime no longer seems to be offering its 20% discount on new games, only for pre-orders. In fact, the discount even seems to be missing from some major pre-orders for games like CoD: WWII and Destiny 2. More info at the link.

[Neonridr]

if this turns out to be true moving forward for all preordered games then I won't be renewing my prime membership.

[Abash]

The hell with Amazon, at this rate they will be lowering the discount to 10% (like they did with Canada) by sometime next year.

Remember when they use to give a $20 credit just for buying a new game in 2011? Way to build up a loyal consumer base just to screw them over whenever they are able to

[Neonridr]

yeah.. and I am in Canada too.. so I already have the shaft you mentioned :P

[zeal0us]

They offer still offer prime discount for pre-orders down the line but they no longer offer for games that's already been release. In the past so long the game hasn't been physically more than two weeks you could get a prime discount. That however is no longer is the case.

I call Amazon Support and asked them directly and that basically what I was told.

[Dno]

@ ZealOus

Call of duty and destiny 2 do not offer these discounts and they both did at one time. i do not think amazon is telling you the truth.

[Aceman18]

I preordered AC: O today and still got discount, maybe it's being down in phases.

[Neonridr]

as long as the preorder discount stays I am fine. I usually preorder games from amazon that I know I want anyways..

[rainslacker]

I'd imagine this is a glitch. Amazon isn't likely to just change this on a whim with no notification. Not sure why the author didn't follow up on it before writing their article.

In any case, they wouldn't cancel it until one's subscription ran out, as they tend to keep things active until the next renewal for each customer.

Edit: Went and looked it up and apparently they are not offering the discounts. In addition, they aren't offering the discount on the pre-order of collector's editions or things like Skylanders or Amiibos(toys to life).

As far as I can tell, any order made before the changes still has the discount applied though.

Kind of sucks, particularly for those that got the membership specifically for it, and may still have time left on it. I think they should raise a fuss to at least get what they paid for.

I always thought the 20% off thing meant almost no profit for them, particularly since the free shipping likely took up whatever little profit they had left.

I'd imagine they're going to lose a lot of subs over this as time goes on. normally they don't do things to piss people off so suddenly.

[SierraGuy]

Exactly...what's the point.

[Relientk77]

Best Buy Gamers Club is better and always has been. I'll keep getting all new games 20% off thanks

[FITgamer]

Facts. I just got Crash and Uncharted lost legacy for just under $55.

[subtenko]

amazon give for under $45......and i get other stuff too

[LiamKreptic]

The Gamers Club is good and very worth it, but from my experience Best Buy is horrible with shipping and meeting release dates. I was fearing this day would come when Amazon would literally fu** me over...

[FITgamer]

IDK I've never had an issue with shipping, every game arrives on release date, as long as you don't wait until last minute to pre-order. Lately though i just order online and pick-up in store.

Also as far as Amazon Prime goes the the only features I'd use is game discounts and free 2 day shipping. Which isn't worth $99/year, when you get the same for BBGC for $30 for 2 years.

[SovereignSnaKe]

Ultimately it depends on where you live. We have a headquarters right in Richfield, MN so I get games typically on release day or in some cases I've gotten them the day before release day.

[LiamKreptic]

I don't understand the disagrees with me? I have had numerous screw ups with Best Buy. Either the game takes weeks to show up or it comes damaged and broken. I have nothing against gamers club, but if I have to continually call customer service because my order is screwed up then I don't want to buy from them anymore.

[subtenko]

If you preorder you still get the discount...and if you dont want it you can cancel it right after or send it back....

You dont get the same convenience with BB and you dont get everything prime has which is tv, music, books, shipping, etc.

so yea, people can say BB is better and I'll just ask them why they would pay $10 for a free icecream cone a month or $20 for a free icecream cone, a sandwich, a drink, fries, and a free live show every month.

Some people are short-term sighted....

[harv052]

Again good for you, but this fu(*&)( gamers club unlocked is only available in the US, not Canada.....see we don't have a fall back plan....we're stuck with the high prices! I'm sick of getting shafted everywhere! we pay the same or more for services or items, yet get less for our money....netflix is a good example.....

[subtenko]

with prime you get all the benefits of prime, movies,tv,music,shipping,twitc h......way more to give than BB

as long as they keep this on for preorders i wont be mad

[rainslacker]

BBGC is significantly cheaper than prime, which did raise it's price last summer.

[rainslacker]

I was going to get it early last year, because it seemed like a good deal, but they were said they were "sold out" of the subscription. Struck me as kind of wierd considering it was just some sub, but it was $10 off the price at the time, but still....kind of sleazy of them.

I never liked shopping at best buy that much, and not getting it on release date is not really an issue for me, but I really dislike BB website for game shopping. Amazon is great, but BB is more of a chore.

Now the closest best buy to me is almost an hour away, and they haven't made their site any better in the last 5 years.

[AizenSosuke]

Oh Amazon you just screwed up my friend royally hard on this one. Instant cancellation.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I still see me getting a discount for Yakuza 1 remake though.

This sounds like its only based on after release and not for pre-order.

[KickSpinFilter]

And then there was BestBuy: Best deal before, Best deal after.

[Pantz]

BEST BUY GCU WINS THE WAR

[subtenko]

nope....unless they get rid of the preorder discount.

[2pacalypsenow]

You get 20% off all games, they can be new or old lol. Gamer Club unlocked is much better.

[KickSpinFilter]

Not only do you get 20% off you sometimes even get a $10 gift card to Bestbuy, so I'm getting SW B2, COD WWII, Madden all for 37.99 each, and if not the bonus gift card all other games for $47.99. I can also wait 5 days after a launch before I decide to pick it up or cancel ,and still get my $5 dollar hold fee back. All for $30 for two years. Just Awesome.

[subtenko]

BB is only good if you dont care about other prime features then yea....but compared overall im saying depending on lifestyle prime is better for many

[Cmv38]

I never bought prime for this, but it was really good to have. I wonder why the change. Only reason to pre order with them over brick and mortar.

[Juiceid]

Easy. Bezos wants to remain the richest mo-fo for eternity.

[yomfweeee]

It still works for preorder. It used to work for a couple weeks after release too, but that is what no longer happens.

[subtenko]

its a way to tell off gamestop

[rainslacker]

I've had prime for years now. Started getting it when I got it cheap when I was back in college. I liked getting the 20% off when they started offering it. Was just one of those awesome things I certainly saved money on, and it really took the sour taste of the price drop out of the equation.

Amazon prime served as Netflix for me, and since I order enough on Amazon, I still find value in it, but I am disappointed that I can't pick up games at 20% off unless I preorder, and now, Collector's editions are exempt even if you pre-order.

Brick and mortar isn't really all that practical for me anymore since i moved to the country. While I can go to them after work a lot of the times, I usually don't care to. Can't stand BB website, and hate shopping for games there because it takes so long to get in and out, and their website is antiquated. Have nothing against the company in general though and do shop there for electronics or appliance or getting some computer stuff at times.

[Nodoze]

Amazon is getting GREEDY. Amazon service of late is turning to ABSOLUTE CRAP. Orders for some of their deals take MONTHS to ship out (if you even get them at all). I am now continually receiving damaged products shoved into boxes that are WAY too small. They took recent collectibles and BENT THEM so that they would fit in the smallest box possible. I stopped buying comics and books from them as they would just drop them into bubble wrap envelopes and by the time I got them they were bent and damaged. After continually ordering replacements and providing negative feedback (and speaking with someone is who knows what foreign country call center) it was still the same. They just don't give a crap and, now I don't either. The ironic part is that Amazon started as an online book retailer.

Amazon the WALMART of online shopping. Their site is CRAP, the service is CRAP, the only thing they have going is price. Just like Walmart. I have shifted to alternate vendors and will soon not be looking back. By comparison when I receive shipments from my new goto for online comics I receive items that are wrapped in protective plastic, with peanuts, and a BOX that is plenty big and can account for rough shipment.

I won't even get into the MASSIVE amount of counterfeit goods they are shipping out. Buyer beware.

BestBuy's program is better (AND you have a local store to go to should you need to), plus you KNOW you are not getting knock off counterfeit goods if you are buying electronics.

Target's online ordering, packaging, and service level are much better (plus you have local stores to go to should you need to).

Shop around. Buy local if you are able. Drop Amazon as it will only get worse from here. They think they have it all wrapped up and can treat customers however they want.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I've had issues with Amazon, but 90% of the time it's been great service, especially with returns and customer service.

[yomfweeee]

LOL you're ridiculous. You're buying from shady third party sellers if you're getting that crap experience.

[franwex]

Jeez dude breath. Just don't buy stuff there. I personally hardly ever buy stuff thru them anyway, but long drawn out rants won't convince me to shop else where. Only Amazon messing up will.

[subtenko]

preorder from amazon gets you 20% off.... yet you talk about greedy...who else does that AND gives you more?! nobody.... you get tv,music,books,twitch,shipping , discounts...yet you talk about greedy. stfu

only thing missing from prime is an internet deal and LIVE tv

[Scatpants]

Amazon is great I order stuff from them all the time with no issues and great prices.

[rainslacker]

I've noticed more new games coming with torn plastic on the cases, mostly because they seem to be cheaping out on the shipping package and don't use bubble mailers anymore, and sometimes the cover is torn. I've had two CE's come damaged from them in all these years....and unfortunately one was the Post-pandemic edition of TLOU, which they couldn't replace. Was just some corner damage to the box, but still lowed it's value. I've noticed some of the smaller CE's coming in bubble mailers, which they really shouldn't be doing given their nature.

I never had a problem with Amzaon's website though. I find it easy to use, and you can find games you aren't always looking for, so it's more like shopping in a store than the generic list format of most sites.

[Cobra951]

I'd be the first to agree that they're greedy, and Prime is proof of that. But I have had none of the bad experiences you're talking about, and I've used Amazon for years. Either you're the unluckiest guy in the world, or . . . well, I'll leave it there.

[derkasan]

Prime's been dropping the ball lately. I've been getting games five days after they release, even though I pre-ordered them weeks ago.

Hopefully they don't nix the pre-order discount too.

[LiamKreptic]

I am confused. I went and checked and I still got my prime savings on CoD WWII and Destiny 2. I also got it for a bunch of new games soooooo...what is this site trying to say?

[Chaosdreams]

Any orders you've made previously, won't be tweaked (so they remain the same). But (for Canadians) the discount on savings is now 10% from this point forward. And additionally, for US/Canada, there's no longer a 20% discount for new games within the window of their release.

[LiamKreptic]

Hm. I was able to get savings on Agents of Mayhem if I wanted to. Maybe there will be none in a couple of days, but my account still shows I can get it. Hopefully Amazon isn't actually going to do this.

[FullmetalRoyale]

I checked Destiny 2 after reading your comment, and saw the same thing. At the time of checkout it shows the $11.89 discount. Maybe they are phasing it out in waves, but for it it's still there. And I haven't preordered it.

[LiamKreptic]

Same I haven't preordered and still got the 11.89 discount so I guess it could be waves or it could be location. IDK, but I hope there is not going to be change cause that is bad for customer satisfaction.

[mkis007]

Well it only applied to games in their first few weeks of release and pre-orders. That said, Best Buy GCU is so much better, there is no time limit.

[Rimeskeem]

I just tried with CoD WW2 and it gave me the discount after I had proceeded to checkout. So the discounts should still be there.

Yup, still there with Destiny 2.

It doesn't tell you there will be a discount but once you checkout it gives you the discount.

[TheColbertinator]

Back to Best Buy

[RosweeSon]

Amazon suck it's just annoying they stock everything I want but they dodge taxes can't shio standard customers goods at a decent speed but hey spend £80 a year with us an we'll post your stuff next day delivery... id rather use the 2 other sites I use and get free next day delivery with no ties. I may be a little annoyed that they've taken money for an order I cancelled its my fault as i did it last second but now have to wait 10 days for it to come back, quick enough to take it tho.
Any time get a problem tho have to really argue your point or else they just fob you off with standard spiel been let down on so many orders by them tho Amiibos and various collectors edition.
Shopto.net or thegamecollection all the way

[xPaYDaYx]

Lol well there goes most of Amazon's physical game sales if this is true. I still use Amazon for a ton of things but I can guarantee you I'll never buy a game from Amazon again. As it is I don't buy any video game related stuff from Amazon unless it was a physical pre-order and there are a crap load of people with a similar mindset to mine. Have fun wallowing in your loss of hundreds of thousands of potential dollars in the years to follow.

[rashada07]

You still get the discount on pre-orders. Just pre-ordered Destiny 2 yesterday and got 20% off. Yea it oddly doesn't state it on the store page for the game like usual but it still checked out at the end when checking out.

[Sircolby45]

The discounts are not gone...You just need to go all the way to checkout before you see it now for some reason. You can still get COD: WWII and Destiny 2 with the discount. I literally just checked and they are there.

[kdmitchell_toh]

There's an issue with the system, I really wrote an article on this after talking to 3 different reps. They addressed some of the games and commented that they will continue to give 20% on all pre-orders. This also happened earlier this year as well.

[C-H-E-F]

The prices get adjusted closer to release. I had preordered uncharted DLC and it was 39.99 then i got an email this week saying that the price has been discounted to my prime 20% off rate.

edit, just looked up Knack II and that is prime discount so it could be publisher driven?? Not sure, should contact customer service and see what's going on. alot of my pre-orders are discounted. Even Madden

[KickSpinFilter]

Ya I'm getting Madden for 37.99 at Bestbuy, I bet it's that low on Amazon?

[plmkoh]

The 'Prime' discount was a scam to begin with, before that they offered 20% discount for all preorders irrespective of being a Prime member. You'd think by being a paid Prime member your discount would be cross-subsidised by other members...but I guess this is what happens when a monopoly realises it no longer needs to compete against themselves.

[Cobra951]

Exactly. All customers were treated well before Prime. Then they used discounts as a carrot to lure people into shelling out a yearly premium, for nothing at all, really (unless you like their video service so much you're willing to shell out all that money for it). Now that they have so many Prime members, they can start to ease back on the carrots, and start making life harder for whoever doesn't pay for Prime. Well played.

[Lexreborn2]

Big mistake, Amazon prime streaming is already not a robust streaming service. To take away the 20% pre-order means your primarily just paying for the free shipping on select items. What's the point after that?

[Nodoze]

Amazon streaming SUCKS. Bar none the absolute worst interface I have ever used. Also I hate that items you place into your queue to watch, end up going off prime and they attempt to charge for the content. That is a very under handed tactic. I find they do that often with TV shows. My guess is they think they are hooking folks and that they will pay. Screw that noise. I will NEVER pay per episode or buy a digital movie EVER.

[ajax17]

Noooo! I was really looking forward to buying The Last of Us Part II with prime discount...

[RosweeSon]

Shop around

[KickSpinFilter]

Not only do you get 20% off you sometimes even get a $10 gift card to Bestbuy, so I'm getting SW B2, COD WWII, Madden all for 37.99 each, and if not the bonus gift card all other games for $47.99. I can also wait 5 days after a launch before I decide to pick it up or cancel ,and still get my $5 dollar hold fee back. All for $30 for two years. Just Awesome.

[Takwin]

Best Buy offers 20% of ALL games and game accessories (like amiibo). It's a really good service and I've used it for years.

Other than physical console games, we all have went digital on the PC, and I personally went digital on the Switch. I've even replaced some of my older PS4 physical games with digital ones when they went on mega-sale (some as low as $5), then sold the physical one for more.

[traumadisaster]

I've been on to this about a week as I was looking to pre order Madden and swbf2. But there was no physical copy, just online codes for sale. Ever since I've been searching forums and everyone is stumped.

Amazon tends to be pro-consumer for my interactions so I would be surprised if that changes. I wonder if they think swbf2 will sell so strong at launch that it would be worth them stopping the pre-order bonus. If so I'll punish them by paying the same but somewhere else.

No im not going back to BBC, I don't usually buy new games anymore but I was a subscriber to it when it first released for $120 per year. Even then at console launch it was worth it.

[Auron]

Wow....

[OpenGL]

The new game discount has always been exclusive to the first 2 weeks after a game releases. Not sure if it's changed, but I'm not going to cancel my subscription based on it. I had Amazon Prime long before they started discounting games and I'm not going to pretend that this will be enough to drive me away from the convenience.

[Tankbusta40]

I can still see the prime discount for games... What is all the craziness about?

[Cobra951]

Amazon have managed to sucker a huge number of people into paying a yearly premium just to be treated as all customers should be. Now they can drop the carrot, and go to the stick. They don't need to coddle Prime members so much anymore. They got their money. And now they can afford to make shopping even less appealing for whoever doesn't pay for Prime.

[Tankbusta40]

Like most of the posts to this article this is a gross over reaction. A prime Membership is 99 dollars a year. Most prime members recoup their cost with frequent purchases etc(I personally order hundreds of items from Amazon a year, the shipping alone pays for itself...the service got even better when I moved to a rural area in the south and Amazon still meets their 2 day shipping). They are free to cancel prime membership when it runs out if they are not satisfied.

You act like to get a prime membership people have to sign away the rights to their first born son and are forced to continue to re up their memberships out of some fear and that non prime members are somehow forced to ONLY do their online shopping at Amazon.

[theindiearmy]

"You Can't Wait for Reviews Anymore
This strips the consumer of a two-week cushion of security and buyer's confidence."

This isn't true at all. You can just wait to open your copy if you want to read the reviews first. This has always been the case with physical games. Don't open it, and you can still return it. Not that hard.

[KickSpinFilter]

Not only do you get 20% off you sometimes even get a $10 gift card to Bestbuy, so I'm getting SW B2, COD WWII, Madden all for 37.99 each, and if not the bonus gift card all other games for $47.99. I can also wait 5 days (to read reviews) after a launch before I decide to pick it up or cancel ,and still get my $5 dollar hold fee back. All for $30 for two years. Just Awesome.

[coolastheycome]

I just got Uncharted Lost Legacy on amazon for $32

[Avalanche]

just goto bestbuy. 20% off and alot of games give you a $10 reward credit.

[DJ]

I personally avoid Amazon simply because the company's long term goal is to put places like Best Buy out of business, then jack up their prices once the competition is gone. Best Buy has much better gaming deals than Amazon, especially because of their Gamer Elite program.

[SovereignSnaKe]

I'm on a Prime 2 month trial atm (one of my orders was a day late so they extended my membership one extra month) I was even thinking of keeping Prime for upcoming game releases this fall, but now I know why I instinctively renewed by Gamer Club membership through BB on Monday (expired since February.) I just wish best buy handed out 10-20 dollar pre-order coupons as freely as they used to.

[FernDiggidy]

If true, then Amazon just lost a prime member.

[markbob]

So, I just bought Destiny 2, it looks like the discount only shows up once you put it in your cart