Twitch Prime members get free Overwatch loot boxes in new partnership with Blizzard

Twitch has announced a new two-year deal with Blizzard Entertainment to become the exclusive third-party streaming platform for "select Blizzard eSports content" including the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship, StarCraft 2 World Championship Series and Overwatch APEX League. The Amazon-owned streaming service will broadcast over 20 Blizzard tournaments and exclusive content through 2018.

Other Blizzard events to be streamed on Twitch under the new partnership include: Hearthstone Championship Tour, Hearthstone Global Games, World of Warcraft Arena Championship and the Overwatch Premier Series.

Blizzard tournaments will also be streamed on the gaming company's website as well.

"Our esports communities are vital to us," Frank Pearce, chief product officer and co-founder of Blizzard, said in a statement "We know there are millions of people out there who love Blizzard esports as much as we do, and we're committed to making sure they'll be able to cheer on their favorite players in all of their favorite Blizzard games for a long time to come."

Under the landmark deal, new and existing Twitch Prime subscribers can claim a free Golden Loot Box in Overwatch containing a guaranteed legendary item, from 20 June through 10 August. The special loot box will also come with three additional in-game items including character skins, voice lines and emotes. However, they will not include any seasonal event items.

A Twitch Prime subscription is included as part of Amazon's Prime membership.

In August and October, Twitch Prime subscribers will get an additional 10 Overwatch loot boxes featuring more in-game content. There will also be similar promotions for Heroes of the Storm players in August and Hearthstone players in September.

However, these promotions are currently only valid in regions where Twitch Prime is available.

"We founded Twitch as a gaming platform heavily based on our community's reaction to games like Blizzard's StarCraft II," Twitch COO Kevin Lin said. "Since then, our large, but tight-knit community, our constantly evolving suite of interactive features, and a native emote-driven chat language celebrated by viewers enable us to support and grow Blizzard esports in a manner that best serves our collective fans.

"This includes providing Blizzard fans with exclusive in-game content for those who subscribe to Twitch Prime, another defining and cherished component of our brand."

To claim your free Golden Loot Box, here's what you need to do:

• To redeem your Golden Loot Box code, first head over to Twitch.tv and log into your Twitch account
• Connect your Twitch account to your Amazon Prime account, if you haven't done so already
• Select the Prime Loot icon found in the top-right section of the screen
• Find the Overwatch Golden Loot Box offer in the drop-down menu and click on "Claim Code" to receive a key code that you can redeem on Blizzard's website
• After you have claimed your key code, head over to Blizzard.com and log into your Blizzard account. Then, head over to Blizzard.com/code
• Type in the code and follow the steps for your respective platform listed below.

PC Players:

• To redeem the code on PC, simply download and install the Blizzard app
• Launch the app and click on the Overwatch icon
• Scroll down to find your region in the drop down menu and then hit "Install"
• After it has been installed, just click "Play" and head to the Loot Box section to check out your new goodies.

PS4/Xbox One players:

• Console Overwatch players looking to redeem the code will need to first link their PlayStation Network or Xbox Live account to their Blizzard account
• Log into the game on your respective console, head over to the Loot Box section and claim your free goods