Late to the Game(s): Getting the most out of Amazon Prime

By: Jeremy D. Wells

Amazon Prime is a popular service. Between the included television shows and movies, access to e-books, and – of course – free shipping on Amazon orders it’s something a lot of folks will sign up for at the holidays. Even if you don’t keep it all year, signing up for the free trial around Christmas can be a good way to save extra cash on your Amazon orders. If you’re a student, you can even continue your Prime subscription for half price. 

One of the things Prime offers that you may not be familiar with, though, are free games and free in-game content. 

This first started after Amazon acquired Twitch, a streaming platform that catered mostly to game streamers in its early days. As part of its Prime service, Amazon offered access to Twitch Prime. Not only did this allow gamers to use Twitch to broadcast their gameplay, it gave them monthly discounts, free games, and free in-game content. 

Recently Amazon has changed the name of this service from Twitch Prime to Prime Gaming, but it still offers the same things – free games and free, often exclusive, in-game content. This in-game content runs the gamut from mobile game items and cosmetic gear for free-to-play games to in-game cash (GTA Online), exotic weapons and gear (Destiny 2), horses (Red Dead Online), and armor items (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla), among others. 

They also offer a number of games, new and old, for free. The current offerings include a variety of classic SNK arcade and NeoGeo console games. Multiple incarnations of King of Fighters (’97, ’98, 2000, 2002), as well as King of Monsters, and Metal Slug 2 and Metal Slug 3 are among the standouts from SNK that you can grab now. The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is another, and includes 24 of the developer’s classic arcade games from the 1980s. 

If you’re looking for something a bit more modern, the lighthearted action-adventure A Knight’s Quest and the RPG Smoke and Sacrifice, both from developer Curve Digital are also on offer. 

In all there are 32 games (if you count The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection as a single game, 55 if you count the 24 titles in that collection individually) that you can claim if you sign up for Prime today. 

And these aren’t all you can expect. The titles will cycle out and be replaced by new ones every month, and so will the in-game items. So, if you have Prime already, or plan on signing up for the free trial through the holidays, don’t neglect the games. They’re yours to keep and access forever, through the Amazon game app or the Twitch account linked to your Amazon account, even if you don’t keep Prime. 

You can find and claim your games at gaming.amazon.com. If you’re a gamer, it’s definitely worth your time.

Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com