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Two years ago, when Amazon acquired Twitch, the streaming community was wary about the potential changes the acquisition would bring to the platform. Considering that Twitch is one of the world leaders when it comes to live streaming games, many content creators depend on it for their bread and butter, so for the first few months after the acquisition users waited with bated breath. Thankfully, nothing grand ever happened as both Amazon and Twitch looked for a way to monetise the acquisition without alienating their consumer base and content creators. The result after two years is Twitch Prime.
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Twitch Prime is the newest enhancement for Amazon’s popular Prime subscription, bringing an array of “free” features and services to users of the popular video streaming platform. Integration is what Twitch Prime is all about; if you already have an existing Amazon Prime membership, then you automatically have Twitch Prime.
“We thought about what that might look like, and set to work designing and building something that would benefit the whole community. We wanted to give you something filled with lots of cool free stuff that would make Twitch fans happy. We wanted to make it like a secret level that unlocks the best parts of Twitch and the best parts of Amazon, where members would feel like total bosses. So that’s what we did!”
– Robin Fontaine, Product Marketer at Twitch
The array of features and services Twitch Prime members get are both varied, and surprisingly desirable. As a Twitch Prime member, you get free game loot every month, such as instant access to the newest Hearthstone hero, Tyrande Whisperwind, or new indie games, like Streamline. Furthermore, members also receive discounts on new-release box games sold by Amazon during the pre-order period and for the first two weeks after launch. And when it comes to Twitch, once you link your Amazon Prime account to your Twitch account, you get an ad-free viewing experience, exclusive emotes and chat badge, and one free channel subscription every 30 days. However, the best part is that content creators will still get paid with that free channel subscription so you won’t feel like you’re ripping them off.
However, there is one drawback about Twitch Prime, it’s only available in six countries currently: the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, though Amazon will likely expand the service to more markets soon. Furthermore, Twitch is removing their existing “Turbo” membership option in favour of pushing users to the Twitch Prime service, but only in the markets Twitch Prime is available in.
