Amazon is destroying the competition, and Amazon Prime just became the best deal for movie lovers and video game lovers. If you don’t have a Prime membership, now might be the time to consider jumping in. Let me clarify right off the bat that this article is not sponsored by Amazon in any way. I’m not getting any kind of gift card, discount, or benefit from this endorsement – I’m just an excited advocate and I want y’all to save money. When I talk to my friends who don’t have Amazon Prime, most of them don’t see the big deal – why should you pay $100 for a year of free two-day shipping? Read on, reader, and discover why a Prime membership just became the hottest deal in town.
First of all we need to get the commercial out of the way. Yes, you are paying for free two-day shipping on all of your orders, “but wait, there’s more!” You also get unlimited music streaming from tons of full albums; the good stuff! No matter what I’m in the mood for – jazz, hip hop, classical, folk – there’s something great for me to listen to. I rarely load up Pandora anymore. Your membership also grants you free ebooks and kindle rentals. Early access to lightning deals and Black Friday sales? Check. Same-day delivery for basic home goods, groceries, and toiletries? You bet. And the final two perks are what have companies like Netflix and Best Buy struggling to win back their customers.
With Amazon Prime Instant Video you can stream thousands of free movies and TV shows. Netflix and Amazon share a lot of the same content, but of course there are exclusives you can only find on Netflix (like Breaking Bad ) or Amazon ( Downton Abbey) respectively. Netflix will feel the pressure in May when it increases its membership price from $7.99 to $9.99 per month. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, except Amazon just announced that you can subscribe to its video streaming service separately for $8.99 a month, and for an extra $2, you can enjoy all of the benefits of Amazon Prime.
Hang with me guys, because this is where it gets good for gamers. I paid $100 for my year of Amazon Prime, so that means whenever a new game comes out I get 20% off. When I’m budgeting for the month I no longer consider $60 games; they’re $48 for me now, and if I pre-order I get them delivered to my door on release day for free . Now you can enjoy those exact same benefits without committing to a year of Amazon Prime.
If a killer month rolls around with a bunch of games you want to buy, this could save you some serious dough. Take next month, for example. Battleborn, Uncharted 4, DOOM, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, Overwatch, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan are all coming out next month. That’s a lot of good games. Let’s say you want to get three of those puppies. Pay your $11 to get a month of Amazon Prime, order your three games and save $36, then rest easy knowing that on each respective release day, your new game will be waiting for you when you get off of work. No fighting traffic at the end of a long day to make it to GameStop before it closes, no paying Best Buy to ship your game to you, and no paying $65 after tax.
Considering you can practically order anything you’ll ever need in your life (everything from tea to lawnmowers) from Amazon and get a full suite of benefits from your Prime membership, I’m not sure why anyone in the US would ever buy their games anywhere else. I’d be curious to know: if you’re reading this and you don’t buy your games from Amazon, why? Do you enjoy a certain perk from Best Buy’s Gamers Club Unlocked program or GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards program that you’re unwilling to forfeit? Let me know in the comments – maybe I’m missing something!
[Ed. Note: Amazon Prime as described here only applies to the US-based amazon.com, which no longer ships games internationally. Regional Amazon sites like amazon.ca or amazon.co.uk have their own versions of Prime that may not offer the same deals. Yes, my fellow Canadians, I feel your pain.]