Amazon Prime discounts on game pre-orders have been dropped in the UK, with the online retailer bringing an end to the exclusive price cuts and offering no further explanation. The discounts previously allowed Amazon Prime members in the UK to receive a £2 discount on the cost of physical game pre-orders, though an email to Prime users has now outlined that this will no longer be the case.
The discount was intended to be an additional incentive to get gamers to pre-order upcoming releases with Amazon, with it ensuring that the site was the cheapest place to pre-order games. However, Amazon has decided to cut this deal altogether, informing Prime subscribers that the £2 discount is no longer applicable.
An email to Prime subscribers in the UK reads: “We would like to inform you that we will no longer offer the Prime discount of £2 on physical video game pre-orders from 7 August, 2018. You can still use this Prime discount without restriction until this date.”
Amazon Prime costs £79 per year or £7.99 per month in the UK. For that price, users receive access to next day delivery on Prime products, along with the company’s streaming video and music services. While the pre-order discounts only chipped a small chunk of cash off the retail price of video games, it did ensure that Amazon was the cheapest place to buy games ahead of purchase, placing them ahead of other online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores.
It’s unclear why Amazon has opted to do away with its Amazon Prime pre-order discounts. It could be as a result of fewer pre-orders being made by its customers, with many now opting to wait for reviews or consumer reception before they pick up a game. Or it could be that Amazon has such a stranglehold over video game purchases that it’s no longer necessary to court customers with these discounts.
It’s unclear whether or not Amazon plans to drop these discounts for US subscribers, though it’s imaginable that a similar move will be employed across the retailer’s European sites.
