Amazon Prime Day first began in 2015 as a milestone to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the company, and this year it is set to expand onto Twitch in a live shopping show. The two day event titled, “Twitch Sells Out: A Prime Day Special Event,” is an attempt at self-deprecating humor and will consist of two broadcasts lasting twelve hours each, from 10 AM to 10 PM PST on July 15th and 16th.
Twitch states that the event will be hosted by its biggest streamers and will focus on deals for gaming, electronics, kitchenware, and other items. The promotional video for the upcoming day-long infomercial shows Streamers such as Jericho, AnneMunition, UmiNoKaiju, and Dexbonus, all eager to tell us about the savings to be had.
To participate in the sale, all one needs is Twitch Prime, which is the most subtle way of telling customers to go and buy an Amazon Prime membership or sign up for the free trial.
The blog states, “We’ve gone through every single item on sale for Prime Day and curated the best of the best for the Twitch community,” though they are not specific on what that means. Do viewers of Twitch all like the same items?
This is perhaps the most blatant advertising seen on Twitch so far. To date, corporate sponsorship has not been something to hide on stream, and many streamers likely strive towards obtaining the most lucrative of contracts for sponsorship, as seen with Ninja, for example, with his ever-present can of Red Bull. This is, however, an interesting decision, and we wonder what kind of viewership a 12-hour commercial is going to pull in.
To that point, there is an interesting part of the blog post that will certainly intrigue those who love new and upcoming video games: “They’ll [the Streamers] also dive into previously unseen demos and gameplay of some of the most anticipated releases of the year. And you can buy or pre-order it all instantly on stream.”
Now, pre-ordering is all but worthless, that is, something that can be done anywhere and likely should not be done in the first place because so many developers overpromise and underdeliver, but new games releasing from that moment on Stream? That might be an interesting development, depending on exactly what games they intend to surprise viewers with.
Before everyone gets excited about any possible lucrative deals, readers should note that right now, Twitch users around the world will be able to view the event, but only U.S. Prime members will be eligible to purchase or pre-order featured products.
The big question on everyone’s mind should be, “Will the sales be any good?” In years past, there have been clear attempts by vendors to swindle buyers.
This was most prevalent in 2017 when it was easily and frequently observed that vendors were marking items up before Prime Day only to have their “sale” prices reflect their normal prices. Over the years, Prime Day has often garnered a reputation for attempting to cast off its least desirable merchandise under the guise of savings.
For this reason, buyer certainly beware. For now, however, we can be optimistic that Amazon has learned from its past mistakes and that the quality of offerings will be better than before.