Amazon has owned streaming giant Twitch since 2014, but besides a Fire TV app, you would be hard-pressed to find evidence of Amazon's handywork. Today that changes, with Twitch announcing their new premium subscription, Twitch Prime. And as you may guess from the title, it comes free with an Amazon Prime subscription.

To put it simply, Twitch Prime is a bit similar to YouTube Red. You get free game content every month (such as indie games or DLC), as well as discounts on new games sold by Amazon during the pre-order period and first two weeks of launch. As far as Twitch itself, you will get exclusive emotes and a chat badge, ad-free viewing, and a free channel subscription every 30 days.

If you don't use Twitch, you might be confused why channel subscriptions would be paid in the first place. Twitch allows you to 'follow' channels in a similar fashion to subscribing to a YouTube channel. Twitch subscriptions are essentially $5 monthly donations for the streamer to support their content, and Twitch Prime essentially giving users a blank $5 check to their favorite streamer every month is a nice gesture.

What's the catch? Users in countries where Prime is available can no longer sign up for Twitch's former subscription service, called Twitch Turbo. All of Twitch Turbo's benefits (ad-free viewing, emotes, etc) have been rolled into Twitch Prime, but Prime costs $2 more at $10.99/month (or $99 a year). Existing Turbo subscribers can continue to keep their subscriptions if they desire, and in countries where Amazon Prime is not available, Twitch will continue to offer Twitch Turbo.

If you already shop on Amazon or watch content on Prime Video, Twitch Prime is a no brainier. Existing Prime subscribers can connect their Twitch account at twitchprime.com.

PRESS RELEASE

Source: Twitch