Amazon Prime Kills Its 20% Off Video Game Pre-Order Discount

Amazon has announced that, effective August 28, Prime members will no longer receive 20% off of video game pre-orders. Instead, the online retailer will implement a new benefit that gives customers a $10 Amazon credit for pre-ordering select games. Depending on how many games that ends up being, this could severely cut the savings Prime members receive when buying new games.

Amazon has offered the 20% pre-order discount since 2016, effectively bringing the price of a standard $60 game down to $48 for Prime members, saving $12 right off the bat. It was a good deal, because games don't tend to go on sale or get discounts for several months after release.

Best Buy used to offer a similar benefit to members of its Gamers Club Unlocked program, but the company quietly shuttered the program in May. Best Buy also replaced it with a deal that gets My Best Buy members a $10 coupon for pre-ordering select games--but at the time of this writing, the selection is limited to 10 games. Effectively, the new pre-order benefits at both Best Buy and Amazon are less valuable and more limited than they were previously.

"More limited" has been the trajectory of the Amazon Prime pre-order deal for some time now. When it first started, Amazon offered the 20%-off deal to Prime members who bought a game within two weeks of launch. It limited the deal strictly to pre-orders last year. And in July, Amazon updated its terms and conditions to eliminate re-releases and remasters from the deal.

In related news, Twitch also also announced that its ad-free viewing benefit with Prime is going away for new members on September 14.

If you're a Prime member who's looking forward to any games this fall or early next year, it's probably worth pre-ordering them before August 28. For suggestions, here's our top pre-order guides for upcoming games.