Amazon is rebranding Twitch's Prime service to Prime Gaming to better align with Amazon's family of Prime services. After launching it in 2016, Amazon feels it necessary to reform the Twitch Prime service claiming that it will bring more viewers and more content to Prime Gaming members than ever before. Members of the gaming community have had mixed reactions to the rebrand with some claiming it to be unnecessary and others thinking this could be a big step for Amazon in the realm of gaming.
Twitch Prime is a service offered to those who link their Twitch account to their Amazon Prime account. The service offers both streamers and viewers a variety of perks including free games, in-game bonuses, and exclusive emotes and badges for Twitch chat. Streamers who have Twitch Prime also have extended storage for previous streams. The biggest draw for the program was the free Twitch Prime subscription which allowed for one free channel subscription each month.
Amazon announced that it will be launching Prime Gaming claiming it to be a superior membership program to Twitch Prime. Prime Gaming will take the place of Twitch Prime and will be offered for free to Amazon Prime members. While the benefits are nearly identical to those of Twitch Prime, Amazon claims that Prime Gaming will offer members even more in-game content and free games than ever before. Twitch users who are not Amazon Prime members can try Prime Gaming for free for 30-days, after which the subscription will cost $12.99 per month.
Members of the Twitch Partners program received an email outlining additional benefits specific to streamers. Notable gaming insider Rod Breslau leaked the Prime Gaming Brand Guidebook stating that the rebrand's purpose was to "make it clearer" that Twitch Prime is a part of the Amazon Prime services. The documents claim that Prime Gaming will increase viewership "across all types of gamers from the Amazon Prime member base" as well as an opportunity to be featured in Prime Gaming promotions. Amazon's promotional slides also make bizarre claims of emotional benefits Prime Gaming members will receive including a "Sense of value" and "Feeling of uniqueness."
Some members of the gaming community feel the rebrand is unnecessary as Twitch has become synonymous with gaming. Others have hopes that Prime Gaming is a sign that Amazon plans to expand what they have to offer to the gaming community. Continuing that hope, In the month of August along, Prime Gaming members can redeem 20 free PC games along with exclusive in-game content for numerous popular titles across all platforms. Prime Gaming General Manager Larry Plotnick claims that Prime Gaming will make gaming even better regardless of the platform or game, stating:
“We’re giving customers new content that makes playing their favorite games on every platform even better. So no matter what kind of games you love, and no matter where you play them, they’ll be even better with Prime Gaming.” - Larry Plotnick
As of right now, the benefits of Prime Gaming look identical to Twitch Prime. For that reason, some people may think this could be a simple renaming of an already successful service. However, it will be interesting to see if Amazon can deliver on its bold statements of offering players more content than ever before. Or if the content they offer will hold any more value than what they have offered previously. Hopefully, the rebrand's announcement will come with a wave of valuable exclusive content that will show what Prime Gaming has to offer its members.
Sources: Amazon, Rod Breslau