The game-streaming service Twitch will no longer offer $9/month Twitch Turbo subscriptions in the U.S. and other parts of the world where Amazon Prime is available, the company announced today. That’s because the Amazon-owned Twitch is now offering ad-free Twitch subscriptions as one of the many perks customers will get for $11/month Amazon Prime subscriptions.
The change was announced today during the kick-off of Twitchcon in San Diego and is elaborated on in an extensive FAQ on the company’s website.
Those who have Turbo subscriptions can keep them or cancel to switch to Prime. Those who already have Amazon Prime are now automatically also Twitch Prime members as well. (You have to log into both Amazon and Twitch to link the two Prime services.)
In addition to allowing Twitch users to watch streams without seeing ads, the Twitch Prime service is slated to give customers a rotation of free games and a variety of digital perks. At launch, that includes some custom items for Smite and Hearthstone and a copy of the streaming-oriented game Streamline. A Twitch rep indicated to Kotaku that Prime subscribers would retain access to their free games even after it goes out of the free rotation.
The most interesting perk might be the option for Prime users to subscribe to one Twitch channel a month for “free” with Amazon directly paying the amount that that sub would normally cost to the channel the user is subscribing to.
Worth it?