Grab some great stuff for Steam Deck / Linux from Prime Gaming for April 17th

Does anyone really trust Amazon as a digital content store?

I mean, the licenses are written in such a way that buying isn't owning so your purchases can just be turned off some day or if the content doesn't adhere to popular social trends they just butcher it.

Amazon has never been a champion in consumer trust for the same reasons that Epic fails and Google Stadia failed.

Whenever some platform does "Free" too it comes off as some kind of time-share sales pitch -- is it really worth it to get roped into a platform that can just go ** poof **

Diversification of content sources is a fine thing, but it's not like gamers aren't already fat on the good life with Steam.

Amazon being involved in gaming already feels like a failed venture.

Does anyone really trust Amazon as a digital content store?

Why should I care? I don't pay for it anyway. It's not as if I have my Prime membership for their games and if they take it away they could refund exactly zero Euros. I suppose if I am genuinely interested in a game I'd most likely buy it on Steam.
And "buying isn't owning" applies to ALL (online) game purchases.

I didn't buy anything there I don't own afterwards. All Music I bought there I downloaded, The Software I bought there was dilivered as a key for the distributers own platform. Games I didn't buy but all the ones from the giveaways are DRM free and can be saved after installing.

If you buy Audible, Kindle or movies there... yeah, no, I wouldn't do that.

That thing on the screenshot, is it a... machine gun?

Looks like a sewing machine…

Looks like a sewing machine…

Specifically one of the early 1900s Singer Sphinx models. But definitely also a submachine gun of some sort.

As Tuxee notes, Prime Gaming just gives you keys to other stores, mainly, although they do run their own "store". I have 140 games on GOG now, probably 130+ of those are thanks to Prime Gaming.

You're kind of right with some of the other stores though. Epic keys, Prime keys and Microsoft Store keys might be revoked... who knows? Is it likely? Nope. Are you paying for it? Kind of - I mean, you are paying for Prime, but your £9/month is probably for other reasons. I pay it for free delivery on Amazon, although I'm rethinking these days as I'm massively reducing how much I spend there. Other people might be paying for the TV shows, or the music sub. They throw every service at you for that £9/month, so it's not like you lose out particularly by trying more services.

Then there's Luna, but I've not tried that, and it's not part of Prime. I don't like cloud-streaming gaming services.

Btw. if anyone else is wondering which of the games features the sewing machine gun – it's Fashion Police Squad.

If you can get a key and get it on GOG that's great. I consider GOG and Steam different than others, I have daily snapshots of my Steam library and even if the internet were to disappear tomorrow I could revert snapshots and fire up the offline-mode and play my collection 20 years in the future so long as I have a offline copy of the files and there isn't any online DRM blocker.

To Amazon's credit, I am checking them out and their cloud content which can be revoked is clearly labeled, so there isn't this false sense of buying a copy in that category.

After Epic I have become leery and skeptical, if it contains a significant DRM or I don't get a offline copy that I can boot it's just not worth my money -- and I have plenty to spare. I'm not going to vote against my interests as a consumer with my dollar.

Stadia was also a disaster, and as a creature of habit Steam is literally the beacon of Consumer PC Gaming, Amazon would have to sell offline Installers to become relevant on my radar.

And they do this with MP3 -- I am happy to buy MP3's, even happier to buy FLAC's -- it's just if I don't get a copy of what I'm buying then it's not a deal.

More important than there being lots of free incentives I think they would be wise to focus on making the service convenient -- taking all the labor out of buying, managing and downloading the content. I'd like better sales on premium content -- I have at least a few hundred Itch.io games and there's only so many that you need -- some people hoard free ketchup and hot sauce packets from fast food.

I like these articles, but Amazon needs to step up their game with Game Manager and API or a Amazon SteamOS Handheld or something to become a relevant player in the PC Gaming space, and there's so many ways they could screw it up following current Trendie tech to do "Cloud-Streaming" that I'm not holding my breath, I think the odds are stacked against them that they create a biome that optimizes Gamer's Interests and installs them as a permanent player in PC Gaming.

It could happen but I'm not really holding my breath. YMMV, and if you can get some of their stuff free on GOG go for it!