Don't forget to claim your Amazon Prime games for May via Amazon Luna

How does that work now? Do you have to play the games through the Luna service or are the codes/keys still independent of Amazon, as they were before?

Quoting: CaldathrasHow does that work now? Do you have to play the games through the Luna service or are the codes/keys still independent of Amazon, as they were before?

There's a bunch of codes for GoG and some other services. No need to ever touch that luna stuff.

I swear, I forget that this is a thing that exists and is available the second I close their site, until I'm reminded of its existence by peoples on social networks :D

The article does note each store the keys are for as well.

Meanwhile Amazon is one of those horrible companies ruining society. They treat their workforce like slaves. They move their profits to offshore tax havens to avoid paying corporation tax in the countries where they operate (so the country loses out). They abuse their market dominance to drive competitors out of business, they damage small businesses. After they have killed off competition, they increase the price of their own replacement products, so the consumer loses out. They don't have good product vetting on their store pages, with lots of unsafe devices being sold. Like Google, they harvest massive amounts of consumer data, impacting people's privacy.

I urge people to move away from buying things on Amazon. Potentially use Amazon to find a product, but then buy it from a local store instead.

Last edited by g000h on 13 May 2026 at 1:54 am UTC

Quoting: g000hThey abuse their market dominance to drive competitors out of business, they damage small businesses. After they have killed off competition, they increase the price of their own replacement products, so the consumer loses out. [...] I urge people to move away from buying things on Amazon.

Clearly, you've already done so personally, or you might have noticed the contradictions to your talking points. I'm not trying to defend Amazon by any means, but your statement is not entirely accurate -- just the usual talking points against big business. In fact, I've noticed that fewer and fewer products actually have Amazon as a seller anymore. Most items are sold by marketplace sellers, often as "fulfilled by Amazon". Their software often promotes the marketplace item over their own (which is, admittedly, more expensive). This kind of suggests that they are in fact facilitating and benefitting small business.

As to abusing market dominance, there are loads of online shopping sites that do the exact same thing as Amazon (basically, modern mail-order) -- for example, Best Buy, Walmart, Temu, AliExpress, Etsy, even eBay could count, and many more -- so obviously Amazon is not succeeding at driving other online shopping competitors out of business.

That being said, I don't question your first two points -- or your last two points either. Those are typical of any modern mega-corporation these days. To support local, small business you would have to drop globalist capitalism and focus on local production and local retail of those products -- and be willing to pay more for them too. Some things, like computer tech and video game production, do not lend themselves well to a local economy. They need the economies of scale that globalisation provides.

Let's go through your arguments then, shall we? First, you agree with some of my points, so I'll only counter where your points differ:

While Amazon does host third-party sellers, your declaration that this facilitates small business overlooks the predatory nature of the platform's ecosystem. Amazon is both a referee and player, making it a clear conflict of interest. During 2020, Amazon systematically used non-public data from third-party sellers to identify successful products and then launch competing Amazon Basics versions to undercut them. Additionally, Amazon takes advantage of algorithmic bias when promoting marketplace items prioritising products with higher profit margins for Amazon even if they are more expensive or lower quality than third-party alternatives. Often sellers that try to sell outside Amazon's ecosystem are penalised.

The existence of other competitors does not disprove the abuse of market dominance - It merely indicates the market is large enough to sustain a few giants. However Amazon is the largest of these with the greatest marketshare, and is still the one to focus attention on. Amazon has successfully driven out competition in niche markets. The book industry (for instance) is nearly monopolised by Amazon. forcing independent bookstores to close or struggle immensely.

Before Amazon there were thousands of independent online retailers. Now the market is heavily consolidated, thanks to Amazon's damaging influence. The presence of Temu and Ali Express does not negate the fact that the biggest player, Amazon, has used its logistics network and capital reserves to engage in predatory pricing (selling below cost) to crush competitors. Only to raise the prices later, once dominance is secured.

Your contention that supporting local business requires dropping globalist capitalism, i.e. some things need global scale: This is a false dichotomy. One can advocate for fair labour practices, ethical tax contributions, and consumer protection without rejecting globalisation or efficiency of scale. The issue is not globalisation itself, but the unregulated concentration of power that allows a single entity to dictate terms globally.

Your argument relies on a "straw man" fallacy, i.e. that criticising Amazon equates to wanting to abolish all global trade. The reality is that Amazon's specific business practices - data exploitation, predatory pricing, and anti-competitive behaviour - These all harm the small businesses and consumers. Amazon is a monopoly that uses its size to stifle market diversity.

I believe there's some interesting stuff about Amazon in Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin's "Chokepoint Capitalism". It ain't pretty. Maybe not quite as sheerly criminal as Ticketmaster . . . well, except for the labour practices . . . but pretty bad.