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Game over for Amazon's free apps and games program

Amazon's Underground Actually Free program, which lets you grab premium apps for nothing, won't be around forever, folks.

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Edward Moyer Senior Editor
Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
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  • Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.
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Edward Moyer
A graphic on Amazon's Underground info page pits the Actually Free version of Jetpack Joyride against its Google Play counterpart.
Enlarge Image
A graphic on Amazon's Underground info page pits the Actually Free version of Jetpack Joyride against its Google Play counterpart.

A graphic on Amazon's Underground info page pits the Actually Free version of Jetpack Joyride against its Google Play counterpart.

Amazon.com screenshot by CNET

Like nabbing free games and other apps via Amazon Underground? Better get 'em while the gettin's good.

Amazon is putting the kibosh on the Underground Actually Free program, the company said Friday. The program offers thousands of premium apps, games and even in-app items at no cost, including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs and more.

If you're on one of the company's Fire tablets, you've got a little breathing room before the party's over. You'll have access to the built-in Underground Actually Free store till all support for the program stops in 2019.

If you're an Android user, though, you'll have to move faster. Access to the store through Amazon's Appstore for Android devices goes bye-bye this summer, the company said in a post to its site for developers.

In a separate post, the company said customers will continue to have access to Underground apps they've already downloaded. So now you know how you'll be spending the rest of the weekend, right? Yup, downloading games like Fruit Ninja.