Amazon PCDD - Important Update New Community Manager Incoming!

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Amazon DVG Deals

Amazon DVG Deals

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Hey CAGS,

I’ve got some news I’m both excited and sad to share with you at the same time. I’ll be leaving the Digital Video Games team in Mid-March to join the marketing team for Amazon.com’s Loyalty and Rewards program, Amazon Coins. My boss and I have talked extensively about how to maintain and continue our presence here and across the other communities we’ve created in the past couple of years. To that end I’d like to introduce you to Josh, who take over monitoring, updating, and responding to this thread. Josh will be ramping up over the next couple of weeks, he  will be posting shortly to introduce himself.

Now that the “what’s going on” part of the message is out of the way I want to tell you all how much I love CAG and the posters here. This was the first community I joined when I started this job (anyone still remember that first thread?) and all of you have had a huge hand in shaping how we think about and execute Community Development and Management here at Amazon, which has in turn shaped my career these last two and a half years.

I started to write out a section calling out the regular posters and realized the list would be both overly long and incomplete at the same time. Instead I’d like to thank you all again, you all have my deep and sincere gratitude. I’ll still be around and my gaming accounts aren’t going anywhere so feel free to hit me up anytime you want to chat. I’ll probably still hang out in the thread too :).

Thanks again everyone, let me or Josh know if you have any questions!

The Indie Store has launched!
Amazon.com is launching a storefront dedicated to supporting and promoting PC/Mac/Web-based Indie Games. Our Digital Video Games team is a small group of passionate gamers and we’re all really excited to help Indie developers reach more customers quickly by providing a quick and simple process for bringing their games to market. Additionally we’ll be supporting the Indie Store with a ton of promotions, both at and after launch. Many of these promotions are designed to give the developer the opportunity to maximize their revenue. For example, Amazon is forfeiting all royalties from bundle sales and passing them along directly to the developer, we’ve also created an “Indie Spotlight” program to help customers learn more about the games and developers they love. We view the Indie developers as some of the most creative in the industry and we want to help them continue to create new and innovative experience for customers.

Why we are doing this:

  • Allow customers to discover an entirely new category of games on Amazon.com
  • Help developers reach new customers quickly. Our onboarding process is straightforward and we want to sell every Indie game available
  • We want to leverage our strengths to support and help the developers who are driving forward innovation and creativity in the games industry
General Information

Hi CAGs,
I'll be posting deals we're running on Digital Games (PC/Mac, Free to Play, Sony/Microsoft Points/Subs).

I'm also here to answer questions you might have, get you closer to the developers by hosting Q&As, setting up podcasts, live streaming gameplay etc. If I don't respond to a question you have in thread please send me a PM. These ping my email address and make it more likely that I will see your question and respond more quickly.

Cheers,
Tony


FYI. EA Games sold by Amazon will not activate on Steam.
F.A.Q.S.:

1. Does the game I'm buying from Amazon Activate on Steam/Origin/Uplay? What DRM does the game use?

There are two places to identify DRM on a digital video game detail page:

At the top of the page, below the title:

16hm7a8.png


In the "Product Description" section:

r06ykl.jpg


2. Note on Electronic Arts Games - For the most part, EA games sold on Amazon do not activate on Steam. Most activate on Origin.

3. Note on DRM with limited activations:

Our Policy



4. Sometimes I'll do giveaways.

5. I work with developers and publishers to get fun (or at least what I think is fun) content to share with you all. Here are some examples:

a. Check out the Pax Gameplay videos here: Xcom: Enemy Unknown I played Xcom with Jake, the Creative Director for the game, a few months before the game came out Also, on this page, check out the Q&A, also a community driven event.

b. Check out the interview on this page: Borderlands 2 we did this interview at E3 with Randy Pitchford this year.

c. We've partnered with the ++GoodGames Podcast to feature many of the games we carry. They talk to the developers about the game development process, how the games are conceptualized and managed, all kinds of fun stuff. I'm working on putting together full link list and will update when I have it.

What else do we sell?

Xbox Live Points and Subscriptions:

1600 Microsoft Live Points
4000 Microsoft Live Points
12 Month XBOX Live Subscription
3 Month XBOX Live Subscription]
12 Month + 1 XBOX Live Subscription

PSN+ Subscriptions and PSN Points:

$20 PSN Points
$50 PSN Points
12 Month PSN+ Subscription
3 Month PSN+ Subscription

We also have a Free-2-Play store supported by our GameConnect technology. Gameconnect allows you to link your Amazon.com account with free-2-play and MMO accounts so that you can buy things like in game currency, premium game time/subscriptions, in game items, etc. on Amazon.com using your Amazon.com payment options and have this content delivered directly into your game.

5. Price Matching notes: Generally we do not match international retailers (GMG, Gamersgate, etc) or physical retailers (Best Buy, Newegg.com, etc.)
To check out the Free-2-Play games we offer you can visit our storefront here: Free-2-Play Store

 
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Amazon DVG Deals said:
/agreed, I've got a whole document I'm building out regarding how things are going at the mid way through this sale and how we need to look at it should we choose to do it again next year. If we don't hear back from some more publishers though, we'll probably just scrap the program next year and look to do something new.

Cheers,

Tony
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Disclaimer: I am not complaining and I haven't been complaining.

I am just really curious as to what is different this year and why the publishers are reluctant to participate? What makes this year different than the past two? I completely understand if Tony can't/won't respond to this.

 
Too Damn High said:
Disclaimer: I am not complaining and I haven't been complaining.

I am just really curious as to what is different this year and why the publishers are reluctant to participate? What makes this year different than the past two? I completely understand if Tony can't/won't respond to this.
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'cuz Sega thinks the value of Binary Domain has risen over the last year~

 
Too Damn High said:
Disclaimer: I am not complaining and I haven't been complaining.

I am just really curious as to what is different this year and why the publishers are reluctant to participate? What makes this year different than the past two? I completely understand if Tony can't/won't respond to this.
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To be honest, I'm not really sure, it is the first line item in the "what to investigate" section.

Again, to be clear, I'm still hoping that we'll hear from some of these guys, especially since the communication we're receiving is still "we have this info and are looking at it". I'm just hoping everyone is busy catching up post holiday.

Cheers,
Tony

 
Too Damn High said:
Disclaimer: I am not complaining and I haven't been complaining.

I am just really curious as to what is different this year and why the publishers are reluctant to participate? What makes this year different than the past two? I completely understand if Tony can't/won't respond to this.
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Just an observation from my part... Game sales (discount amount and frequency between) I'd say are less across the board this past year and have been on a consistent decline over the past two years. Generally speaking. There have still been the occasional instabuys, but those were borderline the norm a couple years ago.
 
You could go the easy way on revamps and just make it a $5 credit on any game $7.49 or more through the month of January. Takes some of the pressure off you, establishes a minimum, just easier.

Or you can play with the idea of publisher locked credit but it lasts 3 months instead of one. This would work only with the bigger guys though. One complicated way to help this is if the buyer can pick which publisher credit he wants (eg, I would pick from EA, Ubisoft, 2K, etc) while one easy way would be it's directly tied to the publisher the game is from (eg, buy from EA, get from EA). Either could make reaching out to them easier as you'd have a clear count of how many people are waiting on their stuff to go on sale.


Or a bit of column A, a bit from column B. The purchases would have, by default, $5 off selected. But the user could pick to publisher lock themselves for more time and/or a bigger discount. That sounds like a hassle to make though since it would potentially mean a layout change and I doubt that's happening (automated the best I figure).


Worst case scenario you can just flip the order around. Instead of all content -> list of games you reverse the order: A group of games are the ones that give the EC out. This is then usable in January on almost any game in the library. As games are guaranteed to be on sale it fixes your issue with lazy publishers tired of 2 months of sales.
 
Tony,

I asked before but you may have missed it. How does the EC thing work for publishers? Does Amazon cover the $5 difference for them, is it split, or is there some other aspect of this to give publishers incentive to participate?

 
Neuro5i5 said:
That's pretty cool. Though, I just felt my performance anxiety kick up about five notches.
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If I could like your post more than once I would. I actually squirmed when I read the Twitch stream suggestion and I don't even plan to play BL. I could watch in support of your efforts though, from one PA person to another. Empathetic anxiety. I might be able to handle that.

 
Mooby said:
I might deign to infest my new PC with Origin if they can knock Amalur Complete down to five or six bucks.
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I've been using Origin for years; I'm surprised you haven't yet... or maybe you mean that you have an account but refuse to install it on the new PC??

The client is pretty painless and very simple to use. It's almost utilitarian in its design. It starts when I want it to and it exits when I ask.

I very rarely buy anything from the Origin store though, because of the pricing. Almost all of my Origin games have been activated through physical copies or keys reluctantly purchased elsewhere.

Honestly, the main reason I still resist buying stuff from that store is that I don't like the way EA makes their games exclusive to Origin. I much prefer the Steam client.

I buy games from Ubisoft because they don't seem to be shoving UPlay down my throat as much. I am annoyed when I play an Ubisoft game on Steam and it opens up UPlay - but at least I own it on Steam and can go through that client primarily as a matter of convenience.
 
I'd say don't give EC $5 credits on any item less than $5. It's because loads of people stocked up with them from buying cheap DLCs that the credit isn't 'reeeeeally' $5.

I'm as guilty as anyone else. One of my coupons was from the $1.24 Walking Dead - 300 days DLC.

 
Amazon DVG Deals said:
To be honest, I'm not really sure, it is the first line item in the "what to investigate" section.

Again, to be clear, I'm still hoping that we'll hear from some of these guys, especially since the communication we're receiving is still "we have this info and are looking at it". I'm just hoping everyone is busy catching up post holiday.

Cheers,
Tony
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Every time a company gives me a "we're looking into it" response without any timeframe or further details I expect the worst.

Thermopyle said:
Tony,

I asked before but you may have missed it. How does the EC thing work for publishers? Does Amazon cover the $5 difference for them, is it split, or is there some other aspect of this to give publishers incentive to participate?
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From the way 2K handles it (and the coupons being given for few-cent-DLC), I think it's a safe bet that Amazon doesn't cover the difference.

 
MinDRIoT said:
I'd say don't give EC $5 credits on any item less than $5. It's because loads of people stocked up with them from buying cheap DLCs that the credit isn't 'reeeeeally' $5.

I'm as guilty as anyone else. One of my coupons was from the $1.24 Walking Dead - 300 days DLC.
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$1.24... you make me sick!

 
MysterD said:
If only SR4 was that cheap, before the coupon.

I played it a little bit of it last night during Steam Free Weekend - the game's insane, hilarious, and awesome. :D

It's like SR meets Prototype, gameplay-wise - since we now got super powers. You can run up walls, jumps extremely wicked-high; and that's for starters. And you can upgrade them, too.
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I was tempted to try it but decided I'd want to buy it and I'm too cheap. Besides, I haven't even played Saints Row the Third yet and I still won't unless Tony puts it on the Editor's Choice list *hint hint*

Either that or I'll have to generate some more Steam wallet while it's on sale.

 
Amazon DVG Deals said:
Lol sorry, my influence ends just short of national tax regulations :).

Cheers,

Tony
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Oh why u need to be new president of america cause our presideent is the worst president ever sad but true. Tony For US president oh wait tony neees 7 more years to be 35 to even be elected son of laws sunasun for president yea sunasun for presideent

 

MinDRIoT said:
I'd say don't give EC $5 credits on any item less than $5. It's because loads of people stocked up with them from buying cheap DLCs that the credit isn't 'reeeeeally' $5.

I'm as guilty as anyone else. One of my coupons was from the $1.24 Walking Dead - 300 days DLC.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. This was actually the first year I gamed the system by buying cheap DLC for coupons. Usually I just use this promotion to get coupons from games I was going to buy anyway, and use them on games I otherwise wouldn't.

Alternatively you could also instead get a $5 credit for anything you buy in the entire preceding year. Then in December is when you cash in those coupons, since that's when all the other sales are occurring. I bought enough from Amazon last year to be eligible for 8 or 10 coupons this way, even if there was a $10-$20 purchase requirement.

I actually like the January thing myself, it's a fun mini-event to kick the year off with, but if publishers think they don't get enough out of it and just blow it off, then it might be easier if it was timed at the same time as all the other deals that they actually care about.

Amazon DVG Deals said:
Just out of curiosity, what is your theory as to why I would deceive you guys about not yet hearing back from publishers on deals that I spent ~72 hours researching and preparing suggestions for specifically to drive growth in my business?

Like I said, the only definitive nogo I've had communicated to me is the Devolver guys with Shadow Warrior. Everyone else has replied with "we're looking at this and will get back to you."

Cheers,

Tony
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I've seen this sort of thing a few times in this thread and just never responded to it, but I think this is perhaps a symptom of how acceptable it has become in internet culture to be negative and cynical. Hyper cynical even. I would (try to) not be too offended by it.

 
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Was so excited by the Crysis Maximum bundle split that I instabought it.

...at $9.99 before the credit went live.   :oldman:

But 15 minutes with Amazon Customer Service got $5 credited to my account.  Plus, Kyle W was kind enough to attempt to convince me that it probably was something wrong with their website, eliminating 47% of the embarrassment derived from my premature purchasing.

Thanks for the deal, Tony & EA guy, and thanks for the great CS, Amazon

 
Updated Spreadsheet ... Added the following games. (Prices before coupon)

1/17/2014  -- 1/??/2014  ||  The Sims 3 - Supernatural ($11.99)
1/17/2014  -- 1/??/2014  ||  The Sims 3 - Town Life Stuff ($9.99)
1/17/2014  -- 1/??/2014  ||  The Sims 3 - University Life ($14.99)
1/17/2014  -- 1/??/2014  ||  The Sims Medieval ($9.99)
1/17/2014  -- 1/??/2014  ||  The Sims Medieval: Pirates & Nobles Expansion ($9.99)
1/17/2014  -- 1/??/2014  ||  Crysis Maximum Edition ($9.99)

Anything I missed let me know.

For whatever reason the EC page does not work for me ... Changing pages does nothing but load the same page.

 
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Wool said:
I agree with this. This was actually the first year I gamed the system by buying cheap DLC for coupons. Usually I just use this promotion to get coupons from games I was going to buy anyway, and use them on games I otherwise wouldn't.

Alternatively you could also instead get a $5 credit for anything you buy in the entire preceding year. Then in December is when you cash in those coupons, since that's when all the other sales are occurring. I bought enough from Amazon last year to be eligible for 8 or 10 coupons this way, even if there was a $10-$20 purchase requirement.

I actually like the January thing myself, it's a fun mini-event to kick the year off with, but if publishers think they don't get enough out of it and just blow it off, then it might be easier if it was timed at the same time as all the other deals that they actually care about.

I've seen this sort of thing a few times in this thread and just never responded to it, but I think this is perhaps a symptom of how acceptable it has become in internet culture to be negative and cynical. Hyper cynical even. I would (try to) not be too offended by it.
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Ya, that suggestion is actually forefront on my list. I'm working with the engineering teams to figure out if we can do it, if we can, I'll be pitching the idea to devs/pubs.

Also, I'm not offended, I just genuinely don't know what the thought process would be for a marketing manager for an online retailer to not want more promotions.

Cheers,

Tony

 
Sepioth said:
Updated Spreadsheet ... Added the following games. (Prices before coupon)

1/17/2014 -- 1/??/2014 || The Sims 3 - Supernatural ($11.99)
1/17/2014 -- 1/??/2014 || The Sims 3 - Town Life Stuff ($9.99)
1/17/2014 -- 1/??/2014 || The Sims 3 - University Life ($14.99)
1/17/2014 -- 1/??/2014 || The Sims Medieval ($9.99)
1/17/2014 -- 1/??/2014 || The Sims Medieval: Pirates & Nobles Expansion ($9.99)
1/17/2014 -- 1/??/2014 || Crysis Maximum Edition ($9.99)

Anything I missed let me know.

For whatever reason the EC page does not work for me ... Changing pages does nothing but load the same page.
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Sims 3: Supernatural was recently $7.49 on GameFly...and that before a 20% off coupon!

Of course - that deal's now dead.

Nope, not a great deal on that from Amazon DVG here.

Man, these next few weeks in January from Amazon DVG hopefully better be good - I got 13 coupons looming and a lot of these deals for me just ain't been enticing.

 
So bought the Crysis Max pack ... does not redeem on origin :(

Am I missing something? Is there not even an Instant Access version? If not I guess I need to get a refund. Not that I want Origin I just like keeping my games in as few baskets as possible.

 
Sepioth said:
So bought the Crysis Max pack ... does not redeem on origin :(

Am I missing something? Is there not even an Instant Access version? If not I guess I need to get a refund. Not that I want Origin I just like keeping my games in as few baskets as possible.
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Still? There are old reports of Origin Customer Service being able to manually add it.

 
Sepioth said:
So bought the Crysis Max pack ... does not redeem on origin :(

Am I missing something? Is there not even an Instant Access version? If not I guess I need to get a refund. Not that I want Origin I just like keeping my games in as few baskets as possible.
Click to expand...
Contact origin support through chat. They will add it
 
Sepioth said:
So bought the Crysis Max pack ... does not redeem on origin :(

Am I missing something? Is there not even an Instant Access version? If not I guess I need to get a refund. Not that I want Origin I just like keeping my games in as few baskets as possible.
Click to expand...
Additional Information:
Game does not activate via Origin, and does not require EA Origin client

Uses SecuRom

 
Sepioth said:
So bought the Crysis Max pack ... does not redeem on origin :(

Am I missing something? Is there not even an Instant Access version? If not I guess I need to get a refund. Not that I want Origin I just like keeping my games in as few baskets as possible.
Click to expand...
Try ea.activate or online chat with CS. I did a bunch of old EA games to Origin last year and I forget if Crysis worked via the website or if I had it added manually. Either way, you can get it on Origin.
 
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hal said:
I've been using Origin for years; I'm surprised you haven't yet... or maybe you mean that you have an account but refuse to install it on the new PC??
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There are basically no EA games (or have been for the last several years) I've been interested in playing.

 
asheskitty said:
Still? There are old reports of Origin Customer Service being able to manually add it.
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I think I had to get support to add Crysis Warhead from Steam to Origin manually, their support were clueless but the guy on Twitter did it. I bought a Crysis 1+2 pack from Steam, don't really know what Maximum is or if this info is relevant to you.

 
EA will add these manually if needed, as they are doing now for Wars and Warhead for me.  Crysis itself activated fine via the activate site. [They are manually adding those for me as I type]

 
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Fatality said:
I have 6 left

need more steam less origin
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i have 11. 3 steam 2 crapgin lol this is bad lol maybe not maybe the finals weeks be good no 2k bundle tho really disapointment lol last year there was darkness 2 oh i brought llike 5-8 of it for friends hhhehh. desert to sea bundle for friend. hello it looks it last year deja vu i didnt buy much the beginning of the first few weeks then it was rush to end i brought many stuff hmm lmao

 
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