Earlier today, a number of Amazon users noticed that several popular games, including Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V, could not be purchased through the site unless they were already an Amazon Prime subscriber. The restrictions have since been reverted, but the fact that they happened in the first place could be a sign of trouble for consumers.

While Amazon has been steadily increasing the services available to Prime members, including a 20 percent discount for game pre-orders, this would be the first time the company has completely locked specific games behind the Prime paywall. The restrictions on some of the games were lifted quickly, but Grand Theft Auto V was still available only for Prime members until some time later.

The quick turnaround might suggest that the restrictions may have been an error, but Amazon issued statement to Polygon that suggested that the move was intentional.

“From time to time, Amazon offers exclusive selection and pricing on select items for Prime members,” Amazon said in its statement. “Customers who are not Prime members can sign-up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime to benefit from these exclusive prices or they can purchase these items or similar products from third party sellers often fulfilled and shipped by Amazon.”

Offering Prime members a discount on certain items is one thing, but “exclusive selection” sounds like a dangerous road for the online retailer to go down.

At this point, it would be hard to imagine that a behemoth like Amazon could be replaced, but if the company decides to force users to subscribe to Prime in order to purchase certain products, even if it is only temporary, the move could certainly make room for alternative services to snatch up the users who would rather not pay an annual premium to have access to Amazon’s full product catalog.

Image credit: Rockstar Games Inc