Updated for Cyber Monday: Amazon is having a 15% off sale on select new releases and pre-orders, which means you can get games like Kingdom Hearts III with a discount. One-day only, go quickly!
Avoid the Black Friday madness and still get some great video game deals!
Amid the chaos of all the other Black Friday/Cyber Monday video game ads you’ve probably seen, I decided to narrow mine down by focusing on three major points:
- They are on sale (obviously)
- You can buy them online
- I recommend them
Consoles
I don’t have all of these consoles yet, but I’ll get them eventually.
Wii U
While it isn’t priced as cheaply as the in-store sales, the best Wii U deal is the Smash/Splatoon bundle selling for $279.99 at Toys R Us. (It currently appears to be ship-to-store only.)
If the Super Smash Bros. and Splatoon bundle doesn’t interest you, the next best online deals are:
PS4
To me, the PS4 has more to offer in terms of upcoming games rather than current releases, but if you’re ready to move on to Sony’s next console, the best offer I’ve seen is the 500 GB PS4 bundled with a physical copy of the Nathan Drake Collection, $299.00 on Amazon.
(The Amazon page also includes bundles with the Nathan Drake Collection + Fallout 4 or Star Wars: Battlefront for $358.88.)
Xbox One
The Xbox One seems to have the best bundle deals this year, with the best deals coming straight from the Microsoft Store.
- 500 GB Gears of War: Ultimate Edition bundle + a $60 gift code and a free game for $299.00 at Microsoft
- 1 TB Holiday Bundle (Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rare Replay, & Ori and the Blind Forest) + a $60 gift code and a free game for $349.00 at Microsoft
I find the holiday bundle the most alluring, because Rare Replay includes 30 Rare games (including some of my favorites, like Banjo-Kazooie) and Ori is supposed to be very good.
Also, if you play Gears online before the end of the year, you get the Xbox 360 Gears of War games for free, so that bundle potentially comes with even more games.
The $60 gift code + free game offer applies to every bundle sold at the Microsoft Store, although the free game options appear to be only Sunset Overdrive and Rare Replay. (I don’t understand why you’d want a free copy of Rare Replay with the bundle that includes Rare Replay.)
If you don’t want to buy straight from Microsoft, you can also find these consoles at Amazon, but without the bonus offers:
- 500 GB Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Bundle for $299.00 at Amazon
- 1 TB Holiday Bundle (Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rare Replay, & Ori and the Blind Forest) for $349.00 at Amazon.
3DS
I love my Nintendo 3DS, but if you don’t have one or need to replace yours, the best deals seem to be the New Nintendo 3DS for $179.99 at Amazon (limited time) and the Nintendo 2DS for $79.00 at Walmart.
PS Vita
PlayStation Vita deals are harder to find than the rest, probably because many people have forgotten about it. The best one I’ve found is this sale on Ebay: a PS Vita Slim for $154.99 with free shipping.
Know of any more good console deals? Share them in the comments!
Square Enix
Before we move on to discuss specific recommended games, I want to recommend Square Enix’s entire store.
While most stores have the Black Friday video game deals you might expect, Square Enix cut prices on just about everything, including physical copies of old games. Many of them are sold out now, but if you add your name to the waiting list, you might be able to get great deals like Chrono Cross for $4.50.
If my review of Kingdom Hearts interested you, the 1.5 Remix is only $8.00 from Square Enix.
The SE Store has $8 shipping, so take that into consideration when checking on deals.
Recommended Games
All right, now it’s time to look at the best deals on games I personally enjoy, recommend, and maybe even reviewed.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy – $20.09 at the Nintendo eShop
- Psychonauts – $0.99 at Steam
- Hatoful Boyfriend – $2.49 for the PC version at Steam, or $5.00 for the PS4/Vita version at PSN plus an additional 10% off your PSN order with the code FH24P5BDR6
- Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix – $8.00 at Square Enix
- Alien: Isolation – $12.49 at Steam
- The Witcher Adventure Game – $2.99 at GOG.com
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent – $4.99 at Steam
- Dragon Age: Origins – $7.49 at Steam
- Dragon Age: Inquisition – $14.99 at Origin
- Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII – $0.50 at Steam
Books
Finally, Amazon is having a special promotion where you can get 30% off the price of a book.
This is your chance to get a good deal on one of the books I’ve recommended here before, like the Witcher novels or Poison Study.
There are a lot of deals out there today, and I’m bound to have missed some. What are the best online Black Friday/Cyber Monday video game sales you’ve found this year?
“I love my Nintendo 3DS, but if you don’t have one or need to replace yours,” I feel targeted.
That Wal-Mart 2DS’s description is apparently from the Nintendo DS Electric Blue one. yikes
If I buy a 2DS, buy a bigger SD card, and do a system transfer, does everything transfer over? Including Streetpass stuff?
“SD Card data
This data is not transferred during the process; however, the data stored on the SD Card of the original console can be used once the transfer has been completed simply by removing the SD Card from the original system and inserting it in the new one.”
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Support/Nintendo-3DS-2DS/Transfer-between-Nintendo-3DS-systems-including-Nintendo-3DS-XL-/Data-that-can-be-transferred/Data-that-can-be-transferred-242841.html
Ooohhhh even better.
So all I’d have to do is have my 3DS and a 2DS/3DS XL/3DS, and do system transfer, and I don’t have to worry about anything?
(Just not a New 3DS XL or New 3DS because…that seems more complicated.)
You are the reason I included “or need to replace yours” in that line.
XD Oh dear, guess they weren’t too careful with that description.
It sounds like you’ll have to re-download digital games, too, but everything else should be all right: http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/620/~/what-is-transferred-during-the-system-transfer-process%3F
Might do low-capacity microSD transfer and buy NEW Nintendo 3DS XL from Amazon. Transfer save data and licenses, but not the games which I can redownload from eShop if I wanted to.
(But I won’t, Animal Crossing New Leaf.)
3DS has a 16 GB SD card. I think.
ok I just did it
Bought New 3DS XL red from Amazon with lightning deal. And size 00 Phillips screwdriver just in case.
Wot happens to my SD card in my purple 3DS after I do the wireless transfer? (I have one AC adapter to make sure both systems survive that….)
Nice!
What do you mean what happens to it?
I’ve never done a transfer before. The most I did was transfer data from a small SD card to a big SD card through the computer. xD
Well after I transfer the licenses over to the New 3DS XL’s card, is the 3DS one usable?
(This conversation made me realize I have no clue what I did with my old SD card.)
Hmm, I should think the new card would be usable.
Erm, it’s the old one.
When doing a transfer from 3DS to New 3DS, the licenses and save data from 3DS SD card goes to New 3DS SD card.
wot happens to the 3DS SD card after
Oops, I meant old one.
Shouldn’t it just be a blank SD card after that? I’m still confused about the question. xD
If it’s a blank SD card, then can I use it for other things?
…including maybe the New 3DS XL?
I think so… but I’m no expert.
But I thought the reason you were transferring things in the first place is because the New 3DS XL has its own SD card.
It does. But it’s smaller.
Wait… so you want to use the original SD card with the new system? Didn’t you quote instructions saying you could do that? Or is that just for the regular 3DS systems?