Amazon 20% off Pre-Order and New Release Games

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HandsomeDan

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Has anyone heard an official statement or explanation from Amazon.com regarding recent changes to their Prime video game discounts? I just went to place an order (because payday), and noticed that two games that are both under two weeks old sold directly by Amazon.com no longer reflect the appropriate discount. A quick google suggests that this discount has also been removed from upcoming titles such as COD WWII and Assassin's Creed Origins. I don't recall seeing or hearing any kind of announcement that the deal was ending, and just let my GCU lapse (seems to be more of a pain buying this then if I had just renewed online before it lapsed a few days ago, ugh).

Can anyone confirm, is this possibly a recent glitch of some sort, or has Amazon made some sort of announcement that just flew under the radar?

It's a shame if they're stopping the two week discount, because that's a big way for consumers to protect themselves from titles like Assassin's Creed Unity, by seeing reviews prior to purchasing -theyre basically telling customers that they only get the discount on certain games, and only prior to being able to confirm that the game is even any good.

I'm hoping this is some sort of clerical error from Amazon, and not an intentional change... But that seems unlikely.
 
HandsomeDan said:
Has anyone heard an official statement or explanation from Amazon.com regarding recent changes to their Prime video game discounts? I just went to place an order (because payday), and noticed that two games that are both under two weeks old sold directly by Amazon.com no longer reflect the appropriate discount. A quick google suggests that this discount has also been removed from upcoming titles such as COD WWII and Assassin's Creed Origins. I don't recall seeing or hearing any kind of announcement that the deal was ending, and just let my GCU lapse (seems to be more of a pain buying this then if I had just renewed online before it lapsed a few days ago, ugh).

Can anyone confirm, is this possibly a recent glitch of some sort, or has Amazon made some sort of announcement that just flew under the radar?

It's a shame if they're stopping the two week discount, because that's a big way for consumers to protect themselves from titles like Assassin's Creed Unity, by seeing reviews prior to purchasing -theyre basically telling customers that they only get the discount on certain games, and only prior to being able to confirm that the game is even any good.

I'm hoping this is some sort of clerical error from Amazon, and not an intentional change... But that seems unlikely.
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There was a thread on NeoGAF about this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1419976

Consensus was that Amazon was indeed limiting the Prime 20% discount to pre-orders only now. The 20% discount is also now split into 10% + 10% on the order page, which is perhaps a harbinger of further reductions of benefits in the near future, since Amazon Canada had the same trajectory of benefit reductions (first limit to pre-order, then 10% discount only).

Just get Best Buy GCU, it's way better for video games anyway.

 
The mods were quick to move this one. Almost as fast as the original switch preorder thread. That thing was gone before the switch was even on store shelves.
 
phoenixlau said:
Just get Best Buy GCU, it's way better for video games anyway.
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I agree, Best Buy GCU is essential; however, they don't carry as many niche games as Amazon does. Still waiting for Best Buy to list the new Raiden game, White Day, and Drive Girls among others.

 
Gotenks said:
https://twitter.com/videogamedeals/status/897799437216608256
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Thank you Gotenks, for being the single most helpful user to reply. Much appreciated!


Josef said:
I agree, Best Buy GCU is essential; however, they don't carry as many niche games as Amazon does. Still waiting for Best Buy to list the new Raiden game, White Day, and Drive Girls among others.
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Eh... I just let mine lapse, quite intentionally. My experience dealing with them hasn't been very positive, and until noticing this change with Amazon I was quite content to stick with that option. Unfortunately I'll have to revisit the issue of delayed orders and mysterious missing packages vs having to decide if I want to preorder to qualify for a discount.


Shadowsteal123 said:
Did you think this was reddit or something OP?
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No, but based on your snarky response that contributes nothing to this topic, you probably spend a lot of time there.
 
HandsomeDan said:
Thank you Gotenks, for being the single most helpful user to reply. Much appreciated!



Eh... I just let mine lapse, quite intentionally. My experience dealing with them hasn't been very positive, and until noticing this change with Amazon I was quite content to stick with that option. Unfortunately I'll have to revisit the issue of delayed orders and mysterious missing packages vs having to decide if I want to preorder to qualify for a discount.



No, but based on your snarky response that contributes nothing to this topic, you probably spend a lot of time there.
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And your Topic contributed what exactly? this is not a video game deal. Therefore it shouldn't even have been posted in this section.

 
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Shadowsteal123 said:
And your Topic contributed what exactly? this is not a video game deal. Therefore it shouldn't even have been posted in this section.
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My sincerest of apologies, oh forum veteran, for being less than intimately familiar with your forum sections. Unfortunately, after a brief look through the sections, none of the other headers immediately jumped out as the correct place. Being that this in fact IS related to a deal -a deal which I wanted to confirm is now dead, I posted in that section.

My sincerest apologies for momentarily distraction you from your... Intimate enjoyment of this forum. I've gotten my answer and have no patience for those who feel the need to jab at strangers who have done nothing more than unwittingly trigger their hypersensitive sense of OCD or categorical lawyerism from behind the anonymity of the internet. I leave you to this place with your hand pump bottle of jergens.
 
HandsomeDan said:
My sincerest of apologies, oh forum veteran, for being less than intimately familiar with your forum sections. Unfortunately, after a brief look through the sections, none of the other headers immediately jumped out as the correct place. Being that this in fact IS related to a deal -a deal which I wanted to confirm is now dead, I posted in that section.

My sincerest apologies for momentarily distraction you from your... Intimate enjoyment of this forum. I've gotten my answer and have no patience for those who feel the need to jab at strangers who have done nothing more than unwittingly trigger their hypersensitive sense of OCD or categorical lawyerism from behind the anonymity of the internet. I leave you to this place with your hand pump bottle of jergens.
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To be fair, the first header in the main deals section specifically says "Do not create threads to ask a question", which is the first thing you did in the op.

If we wanted to talk about "fact", that part is fact, so I'm not sure why you're trying to act all smug in response to someone clearly trying to troll you, and pretend you were correct in your assumption, when you clearly are not.

You can respond to the guy making snide remarks to you if you want, but that first part was just filled with ignorance, and the fact that this thread had already been moved to this section just reaffirms that this is where it belongs.

 
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Squarehard said:
To be fair, the first header in the main deals section specifically says "Do not create threads to ask a question", which is the first thing you did in the op.

If we wanted to talk about "fact", that part is fact, so I'm not sure why you're trying to act all smug in response to someone clearly trying to troll you, and pretend you were correct in your assumption, when you clearly are not.

You can respond to the guy making snide remarks to you if you want, but that first part was just filled with ignorance, and the fact that this thread had already been moved to this section just reaffirms that this is where it belongs.
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First, there's really only one user here who has made any unpleasant issue of the matter, and as we seem to agree its largely for their own gratification. I don't take your addition as any kind of attack, nothing of the sort. I do send need to clarify myself a bit, as I was perhaps not as clear on certain things as I could be.

I'm not sure how this conversation devolved to the necessity for quotes whenever "fact" comes up, lol, but perhaps I'm overlooking something.

I looked at the section titles (which many people would refer to as a header), and being gaming deal related, I made a decision to post in that section -logically, it seemed like the right place to post at that time. My question specifically related to a deal, which I have seen referenced here many times over the years, and I was hoping that there was still some way to use that deal. I figured that if anyone would know, they'd be here in the video game deals section. I realize the logic leading me here was "factually" incomplete and therefore led to the incorrect choice, and I don't argue that.

The point that I may not have conveyed correctly was that I had actually scanned over the section titles, and made a conscious well-intentioned decision when I posted. Everyone makes mistakes, especially when posting in a forum they don't 'live' in day to day -had I posted a question about kitty litter in the deals section, or a tirade about politics, I could see the vitriol. But when the subject matter is, at the very least, clearly adjacent to it's original placement and a friendly mod has already relocated the thread to it's appropriate location, nothing more is really needed. If I was arguing that my post should be put back, if I was RE-posting it there, or if I was challenging the mods, there would be reason to push the topic. I've explained my reason for the original post location, and I understand that the mods felt it was better elsewhere. I have no issue with the fact that it was moved to the correct location. I appreciate the fact that it was done so quickly in response to my mistake.


It is however blatant jackassery to respond the way another user did above, when a situation has already been resolved by the mods. I'm not personally one who uses the term troll all too often, because many people have taken to that as a term of endearment or a mark of success. It's always disappointing that some of those who spend the most time in these forums, are also the ones who often demonstrate the best tactics to drive everyone else away for understandable mistakes or perceived slights. It's a free internet, and they can laugh all they like, but at the end of the day, it's essentially just dropping a big sloppy duece in one's own swimming pool.
 
OP: If you're gonna get this bent out of shape over a simple throwaway snide remark, maybe you shouldn't be on CAG (or post in the deal-specific forums at all. There's a fair number of people around here, myself included, who rarely visit those places or mainly stick to a few select threads). If you're gonna post a thread in the Video Game Deals subforum that is not a deal, then you're gonna get shit for it. That's just how it's always worked around here. CAG can be a great place-- I've made some wonderful friends here-- but inappropriate posts in the Deals forums is something that CAGs tend to have a low tolerance for.

 
If you don't want to get such replies in the future, keep in mind that Video Game Deals is for posting actual deals and if you want to ask a question, discuss store policy, etc., then Shopping Discussions is the place.

That's all I say about that. As for the change in Amazon policy, it sucks for me as a Prime member, and also as someone who rarely buys big-name console games anymore (in other words, GCU would probably not work out for me). Amazon seems to have other priorities when it comes to Prime these days. I hope the backlash against this is enough that they bring it back, but not holding my breath.

 
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Ugh. I'm not bent out of shape.

Lol, I couldn't really be bent out of shape about anything here if I wanted to right now. I'm replying from my desk between running and troubleshooting some automated tasks. I simply replying to people as is fit based on their tone and content. One person was a snarky tool, and one person was intending well. Really though, this topic was answered and effectively served it's purpose when Gotenks and Phoenixlau replied with helpful information. I had run a Google search to get information on the matter, which had been unfrutiful -they provided the details I sought.
 
Jurai said:
If best buy ditched preauths for GCU members I'd drop Amazon entirely
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I just got a Best Buy Credit Card for this reason. Plus I get the additional 5% back since I will pay it off immediately anyways. But I could careless if they put a preauthorization on the card since it can only be used at the store anyways. They also have the newer Visa that can be used anywhere as well which everything goes towards your Elite or Elite Plus status. Definitely have some options around that.

 
I prefer GCU simply because I hardly ever buy games at full price when they come out anymore. Most 60 dollar games are on sale for 40 at some point within 3 months of release, so you can get most new games for 32 bucks relatively quickly. The 5 percent rewards is icing on the cake.
 
EDIT: Okay, I just bought a bunch of games through Best Buy with that $30 plan...  Doesn't have language anymore about needing to activate it in-store, so hopefully that part's changed.  Saved me probably $80 over Amazon, AND technically adds to my "points" on best buy or whatever.

Okay, I THOUGHT I just posted in this topic, but now can't find it, so I'm posting again...

I *JUST* found out that the Amazon discount no longer applies except to preorders-missed out on 4 games I WOULD have bought, and JUST renewed Prime assuming it had this benefit.

Regarding Best Buy's "GCU" thing, do you really have to "activate it in store" like it claims?  I've never signed up, because it SAYS you have to go to a store to "activate" it (whatever that means) even when you buy it online.

Can someone explain how it works?/whether that's accurate?

 
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can anyone show me where it says you get 20% off preorder games in the terms and conditions? I can't find it anywhere. I am trying to preorder sonic forces for the switch and it's not giving me 20% off. I tried contacting support and they tell me there is no such 20% off policy for preorder games. 

It seems they have removed all mention of 20% off games from their terms so I have nothing to show to customer support that proves I should be getting 20% off.

 
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