It’s another holiday season and Black Friday continues to lose its literal meaning. Soon, everyday between Halloween and Christmas will be Black Friday. Next year, maybe it’ll inch up ever closer to Indigenous People’s Day. Maybe the corporations will swing for the fences and start dropping those ads by Labor Day weekend. Regardless of my complaining, gaming is an expensive hobby and any deal is a good one, so here’s some you all might like.
Discounts on Elden Ring and Sonic Frontiers, which are basically the same game
Let me put it like this: Elden Ring felt big even for the $60 I spent on it at launch. For $40, it’s a steal that you all need to capitalize on and it’s a deal you can get at all the major retailers literally right now. The similarly ambitious yet misunderstood Sonic Frontiers is also available for $40, so you really can’t go wrong with picking up either or, preferably, both. Though Gotham Knights got slammed when it came out last month, it’s already on sale at about $42 on digital storefronts if you were interested but a smidge hesitant. The Quarry and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands are both on sale digitally for $35 apiece, and you can get Destiny 2: The Witch Queen and the year of content leading up to next year’s Lightfall expansion for $40.
Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals
It hasn’t been the Switch’s most momentous year, which is adequately reflected in the deals Nintendo’s running for Black Friday this year. Nintendo seems like it’s being even stingier than usual with some of the first-party sales, only cutting very select few exclusives like Animal Crossing New Horizons and Breath of the Wild by about $20, though some retailers are going even lower. Target’s got a decent amount on offer, but is also one of the few retailers that is going that extra mile, with Mario Party Superstars and BOTW, for example, being at least half off. Now’s a perfect time to play the latter especially, since we know the sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, is coming next year. Whatever you do, just don’t buy Target’s exorbitantly complete edition of The Witcher 3, which is currently sitting at $80.93, for some godforsaken reason.
Target’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals
Best Buy’s got much of the same deals Target has, but also has way more games on sale. Unfortunately, all the first-party games are sitting pretty at $40 dollars, which is still a decent price for Nintendo games, since they so rarely get discounted. Besides that, Best Buy’s offering a Deluxe Edition of New Tales From The Borderlands for $30. Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD and Monster Hunter Rise, which just got an acclaimed expansion this year, are both on the cheap too. And If you’re willing to pay full price for a deal, Best Buy’s actually offering to throw in Mario Rabbids: Kingdom Battle in for free with purchases of the Cosmic Edition of the new game, Mario Rabbids Sparks of Hope.
Best Buy’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals
Walmart’s actually got a killer selection of sales because they threw caution to the wind and have basically all the same first-party games I’ve highlighted at half off. So if you’re wanting any of the aforementioned exclusives on the cheap, you know where to go. They actually also undercut almost every other sale price so far on countless games like Sonic Frontiers, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (and Three Houses), as well as Monster Hunter Rise.
Walmart’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals
Gamestop’s probably got the biggest catalog of games on sale, but that catalog reaches back quite a ways. So if you’re looking for something smaller or older, they might have something in store for you. As far as notable titles go, they’re the only retailer I spotted selling Pokemon Sword and Shining Pearl at a discount, though it isn’t the best deal. Additionally, they’ve still got Shin Megami Tensei V half off and even Astral Chain’s a bit cheaper. Nothing too compelling, but if you’re looking for outside picks, Gamestop might have what you need.
Gamestop’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals
PlayStation Black Friday Deals
PlayStation’s got the usual assortment of deals going over at Target, including a ton of third-party sports games. So if you’re looking for NBA 2K23 on the cheap, or EA’s last FIFA game ever, you’re in good hands here. You’ll also find some older games for all-time low prices, like Resident Evil Village, which just got an expansion, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which has just received its thousandth expansion or something like that. If you’re into the kind of niche RPGs that PlayStation built its brand on, Soul Hackers 2 is half off, but the biggest deals you’ll find here are the steep drops on two of this year’s biggest exclusives: Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7.
Target’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals
Best Buy’s got a much narrower catalog for PlayStation this year, basically promoting first-party exclusives over anything else. That’s fine though, because that means you can find games like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Ghost of Tsushima for about half the price. You can also pick up The Last of Us Part II and Bloodborne for about $10 apiece and enjoy them on either your PS4 or PS5. There’s also a great deal on the Nioh Collection, which bundles the two games in the series, and is available at half-price right now.
Best Buy’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals
Walmart is once again the undisputed GOAT of savings this year, undercutting pretty much every discount I’ve listed already. Elden Ring is actually available for $35 on PS5 here, rather than the $40 it’s listed for everywhere else. So are Horizon Forbidden West, GT7, and Gotham Knights, while Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is at an all-time low on PS5 here. You can pick up MLB The Show 23 for a sliver of the full price too. Y’all know what to do.
Walmart’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals
While Gamestop’s got most of the same deals, one of particular note is the recently released A Plague Tale: Requiem already being discounted by about a third. Last year’s disastrous Battlefield 2042 (which I’ll note has improved since I panned it) is available for ten bucks ahead of its third season and launching on Game Pass this week. Lost Judgment, which only dropped last fall, is $15 on PS4 at the moment, and many titles older and more obscure than that are enjoying pretty hefty discounts at Gamestop, so check those deals out if you’re interested.
Gamestop’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals
Xbox Black Friday Deals
Surprise, surprise, most of the third-party deals we highlighted on PlayStation are available on Xbox as well, so everyone can get in on these deals. As far as exclusives go, last year’s Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 are the most steeply discounted and marketed titles you can pick up, though they’re also available on Game Pass. That said, we can highlight some third-party games that didn’t get a shout before like Lego Stars: The Skywalker Saga, which is half off right now at Target. They’ve also got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin for half off, so go nuts.
Target’s Xbox Black Friday Deals
Best Buy’s functionally got the same stuff on offer, so expect some year-old games to be on the low, like Far Cry 6, as well as this year’s Saints Row reboot. Lost Judgment is $15 on next-gen Xbox systems at Best Buy right now, but the best deal you’re going to find here is that the literally just released Goat Simulator 3 is already $10 cheaper.
Best Buy’s Xbox Black Friday Deals
Disappointingly, most of Walmart’s Xbox offerings are the same as what I’ve already listed for both it and PlayStation, making this the sole place that Walmart’s fallen a bit short this Black Friday. It’s fine though, the existing deals are pretty good as is. Compare and contrast with the others, and see if there’s anything smaller that they might offer at the tiniest bit of an advantage.
Walmart’s Xbox Black Friday Deals
Once again, Gamestop has very little of note that I haven’t mentioned anywhere else, so if you’re shopping around and just want to price match, go for it. They’re constantly undercutting the rest of the retailers by about a dollar, and I’m sure in the grand scheme of things, that’ll count for something. Just don’t expect many novel deals here.
Gamestop’s Xbox Black Friday Deals
Xbox Series is Discounted Everywhere
Inarguably the biggest deal of the season, the Xbox Series S, Microsoft’s all-digital console, is $50 off at various retailers. This means that the already cheapest next-gen offer is now even more affordable now that it’s sitting at a very attractive $250 price point. If you haven’t been able to snag any console from the latest generation due to shortages or price points, I’m not sure you’ll find as good a deal as this for a while to come. As an added incentive, Target is throwing in a $50 gift card to use in their stores with the purchase of an Xbox Series S, and what better way to potentially spend that than on a few months of Game Pass Ultimate, which nets you access to games from the latest and greatest Xbox exclusives to the the year’s most surprising hits like Vampire Survivors.
Meta Quest 2 Actually Has a Solid Deal
Almost unbelievably, most retailers have quite the deal on a Meta Quest 2 VR bundle at the moment. The 128 GB model is currently $50 cheaper, sitting at $349. While the discount may not sound steep, the offer actually only gets better because these VR units come with Resident Evil 4 VR (which I’ve heard is a fantastic port of a fantastic game) and Beat Saber at no extra cost. Considering how much VR typically runs folks, this sounds like an absolute steal if you ask me. So if you’re finally looking to make the plunge, this sounds like as good a deal as I’ve ever heard.
Moises Taveras is the assistant games editor for Paste Magazine. He was that one kid who was really excited about Google+ and is still sad about how that turned out.