Isnt GCU 20% of all games you buy? Even those already on sale? That sounds miles better than what Amazon is trying to implement lol. It would be nice if Amazon just gave even 5% or 10% of non-prime price for anything you buy (in certain categories of course), so you'd always feel like you are getting a better deal. Instead it just sounds like random things are locked for prime members for no apparent reason at all.
I'm actually a prime member so I don't yet know HOW stupid this is, but it has sounded like a really weird experiment to me. I'm not sure if I will renew prime so I might find out just how bad it is in a couple months...
You're looking at Prime wrong. GCU, etc, are pretty much dedicate 'game'/deal services. They can take the income from selling GCU and aim it all at giving gaming specific deals. The -reason- people join is for the discounts, because the discounts are the heart of it.
Prime is primarily for heavy users of Amazon -- free shipping, etc. The deals are 'added value', not why people join.
You said in a previous post that the only reason you kept Prime is for streaming; that too, is pretty much a 'value add' for Prime (though a very nice one). We have Netflix (and a DVR) so never use Prime for streaming, but still get it every year because we do almost all our shopping via Amazon (we've cut down grocery shopping to pretty much veggies and other perishables -- everything from canned goods to toothpaste to whatever comes from amazon). That's Prime's main purpose - to make buying on amazon easier and cheaper in a way that compels us to shop there instead of elsewhere [and it works]. Some deal on a game or bluray is just a minor value add.
I'm not sure how you can think adding value to a service 'doesn't make sense'... it makes absolute perfect sense.
It really doesn't make sense. They have put lots of blu Ray movies behind same paywall... and to me it just seems... random. The "deals" just seem like ordinary sales you can get anywhere.
It's just a value add. It's not meant to be a selling point of the service, or to get you to grab something else on your order. It's certainly not competing with something like GCU.
think of PS+. You're spending your money for 'online PS4' and for the monthly games. Those are the main selling points. Extra discounts during sales are just a 'value add' for existing members, and one more thing that might push people into thinking a sub is worth it -- but those discounts aren't meant to be the 'main' draw [although they may be for some, obviously].
Giving members of a paid service an extra discount here and there is a nice, cheap, easy way to make your members happy.
