Dive Brief:

• Amazon is providing Prime members with one free channel subscription to Twitch Interactive which allows viewers to interact with game streamers in chat rooms and provides them with access to emoticons, according to Bloomberg. Other free gaming content is also now available. 
• Amazon bought Twitch Interactive in 2014 for around $1 billion and could be gearing up to take on bigwigs such as Sony and Microsoft. 
• The e-commerce giant is actively developing more gaming elements in its offering, such as a Fire TV gaming version that includes a controller for playing games.

Dive Insight:

All the moves around gaming are part of a digital content strategy that promotes brand awareness and keeps customers within the Amazon Prime ecosystem. The Bloomberg report speculates that Amazon might even have ambitions to enter the subscription-based multi-player games space that is currently the domain of Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox consoles. That space generates $3.3 billion yearly in subscription fees. Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, speculated that Amazon could sell a less expensive console and add multiplayer games in Prime memberships.

Prime began as a way for Amazon customers to get free two-day shipping on orders, but has now expanded to streaming video and audio content as well as some gaming. It looks like the gaming piece of the content offering will be expanding.

Content is an increasingly important strategic move for digital marketers as consumers spend more time on their devices. 

Amazon has moved far beyond just a place to buy books online, and even beyond its now massive retail product offering. Its Alexa digital assistant has carved out an important role in a quickly growing space and its hardware business continues to grow with the Kindle Fire and Echo devices. Gaming is one more way the company is supporting a digital strategy that consistently comes back to e-commerce.