Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon is rebranding Twitch Prime, which gives Amazon Prime subscribers perks on the company’s live streaming platform, by dropping the Twitch name and emphasizing the Prime part of the brand. The service will now be known as Prime Gaming.
Even though the name is changing, Prime Gaming will still offer the same benefits you might be used to if you’ve ever signed up for Twitch Prime. Those include exclusive in-game content, free games that are yours to keep forever, and a free monthly Twitch subscription you can drop on a favorite streamer.
Image: Amazon
With the new name, Prime Gaming sits more logically alongside some of the other digital content included with an Amazon Prime subscription, such as Prime Video for streaming movies and TV shows and Prime Reading for ebooks, digital magazines, and more. (Amazon Prime, which costs $12.99 per month or $119 per year, also offers benefits like free shipping on many of the platform’s online purchases.)
The new Prime Gaming name is yet another signal of Amazon’s continued commitment to gaming. In addition to owning Twitch, for example, Amazon also has its own game development arm called Amazon Games — though it’s had a bit of a rocky year. (Haven’t we all.) The company’s first major title Crucible, which mixes elements of hero shooters and mobile online battle arenas, was released in May but returned to closed beta after a little more than a month for further refinement. Upcoming open-world MMO New World was delayed from August 25th to spring 2021 on July 10th. And a version of Pac-Man that you can play directly inside Twitch was supposed to launch in June, but still hasn’t been made available.
Amazon is also rumored to be throwing its hat into the cloud gaming ring at some point in the future, potentially launching its own cloud gaming service. Reportedly codenamed Project Tempo, the platform may launch as early as this year. It might be pushed to 2021, however, due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, The New York Times reported back in April.