Amazon launches Prime Gaming in India

Days after putting up a webpage promoting the service (without actually making it live), Amazon has launched Prime Gaming in India. The service has free games for Amazon Prime members, along with in-game frills for some titles. Prime Gaming has been available in other markets for a while, but in India the service only offered mobile game benefits until Tuesday’s launch. 

TechCrunch first reported the service going live. Amazon doesn’t appear to have made an announcement yet. Entrackr has reached out to the company for comment. 

Amazon’s subscription-driven entertainment products which are available in India are: Prime Video and Prime Music (which are part of the Prime subscription overall, along with Prime Gaming); Kindle Unlimited (which is a separate subscription; and Audible, an audiobook platform that it acquired in 2008.

Some titles the service went live with include in-game content for titles like Madden NFL 23, FIFA 23, Call of Duty and Deathloop. Just like the previous mobile-only avatar of Prime Gaming India, there are more add-ons here than actual games, but this might change over time.

Only eight full games are available for free at launch, and they can only be claimed for a two week period (other game subscriptions like PlayStation Plus work similarly, where a title can be claimed and be played as long as the user is still subscribed to the service). These games are Quake, Spinch, Desert Child, Brothers: A Tale of Two Suns, Banners of Ruin, Rose Riddle 2, The Amazing American Circus, and Doors: Paradox. 

The initial catalogue’s titles are not highly expensive AAA games, and it is unclear if having more expensive games will be a part of Amazon’s plans for the service in India. However, the attention to graphics-intensive games, such as those on PCs, is certainly interesting from a company like Amazon.

Even Jio is getting in on the action, with JioCloudGaming, which leverages the telco’s 5G network to offer PC games on mobile devices. That service is in beta, though, and we have had mixed results in testing on Jio’s own 5G network as well as on powerful WiFi connections, even when using a recently released flagship handset.

India is a mobile-first country in terms of access to the internet and gaming, with high taxes and import duties on more powerful laptops and PCs. However, cloud gaming platforms like The Gaming Project (which Entrackr covered here) and subscription bundles like Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, are gradually reducing the entry barriers for gamers.