by Stephanie Cookies
We all know Black Friday is the day everyone worships at the alter of the consumer gods. Luckily, game companies are more than willing to feed our habit.. uh, hobby. This year companies aren’t just keeping Black Friday confined to ONE day, we can now enjoy the discounted goodness for days or, in the case of Blizzard, weeks.
Because I am a Blizzard junkie we will start here, because I said so.
The biggest news for Blizzard Black Friday is Heroes of the Storm. Every single item on the HotS store is now 50% off. No, really. GG, wallet, GG.
The sale started November 24 and will end on December 8, two whole weeks to bargain with your paycheck and expand your collection of heroes, skins and mounts.
- All Heroes, Mounts, and Skins are discounted 50%. It is helpful to note this is 50% off the real world money cost and not the gold cost. Gold cost is not discounted.
- A new 360 day Stimpack is available at a deeply discounted price. Discounted price is approximately $60. You can decide if it’s worth it. However, Blizzard has updated the sale with a note that this 360 Stimpack with ONLY be available a limited time during the Black Friday Sale.
- A new Second Chance Bundle is available with the following items:
- Winter Veil Jaina
- Greatfather Winter Rehgar
- Reign-Deer Mount
- Nazeebra Mount
- Lunar Tiger Mount
- Magic Carpet Mount
Originally I thought the big deal for this Bundle would be the Mounts. On second perusal through the Skin section of the store, the Winter Skins are no longer available for individual purchase. This is the only way to get them, and it’s a good bet they will be retired for another year after December 8th.
Not to miss out on the fun, Digital PC editions of other games are on sale through the Blizzard online store.
- Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm are 50% from 11/24 to 12/8. Both are currently listed at $9.99. Since Legacy of the Void just released, it is currently not on sale.
- World of Warcraft is currently 75% off, the base game listed at $4.99 with Warlords of Draenor coming in at $12.49. The entire game for under $20, that’s a good deal no matter how you look at it. No word on how long this will last but I’m guessing December 2nd.
- When I originally looked for Black Friday deals, Blizzard had a blurb marking Diablo III and the expansion Reaper of Souls at 50% off. Unfortunately, I did not take a screenshot and I can no longer find this listed anywhere. The Blizzard store is listing each at the full price of $19.99. Perhaps this will be a deal announced on actual Black Friday.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like anything from Hearthstone in on sale.
Last week, Microsoft kicked off the capitalism madness by announcing a $50 price cut for all Xbox One Bundles for ALL retailers, both online and brick and mortar, from Thanksgiving Thursday to Cyber Monday.
Following up on that deal, the Xbox Store is doing its normal Black Friday dance, deeply discounting quite a few digital games. What makes this one special? The recently launched backwards compatibility and just how deep the discounts for some games go, up to 75% off regular store prices for Gold members. A little less discounted for everyone else.
There is a nice selection of 360 games, some playable on the One some not there yet with the backwards compatibility. Quite a few are only $5, yes you read that right, $5 for games like Assassin’s Creed 2, Borderlands, Gears of War, Mass Effect, and Bioshock. The One game offering isn’t too shabby either, Tales from the Borderlands is $10 for the entire series for Gold members, The Master Chief Collection is $30 and Borderlands Handsome Collection is $24.
If you are a gold subscriber, the sale is on right now and has been for a few days. According to the website it ends on November 30th, however there is a tease stating weekend sale is on November 27th. Who knows, there might be more discounts on Friday.
Check it out either through your console or xbox.com.
Not to be outdone by Xbox, Playstation is offering their PS4 Nathan Drake collection bundle for only $299.99 from Thursday through Monday, November 30th again through all retailers. This is the lowest official price, to date, for the Playstation 4.
“The bundle includes a 500GB PS4 system and the single-player campaigns for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Take some time over the holidays to play the first three, critically-acclaimed Uncharted games with beautifully remastered graphics and brand-new game modes for PS4, right before the release of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End on March 18, 2016. You’ll also gain exclusive access to the Uncharted 4 Multiplayer Beta between December 4th through the 13th if you own Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.”
Although not technically billed as a Black Friday sale, PSN is currently offering a selection of co-op games discounted up to 80% for regular folk and up to 90% for PSN members. To top it all off they are also offering a 10% storewide coupon that will stack with other deals including any Black Friday deals they may end up offering. The game sale is only until November 30th, the store coupon is good until December 1. For the full list of co-op games and the coupon code, head over to the Playstation Store online or through your console.
I’m sure more actual Black Friday deals will be announced over the next couple of days. Hopefully before Friday so people can plan accordingly.
Joing the bundle race with Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is offering a Wii U bundle that includes Super Smash Brothers and Splatoon. Regular price is $280, cheaper than either Playstation or Xbox offerings. Walmart, at the very least, will offer it for $249 on Black Friday. In addition to the Wii U Bundle, all new Nintendo 3DS will be $20 off.
The Nintendo eShop is getting in on the action, currently offering up to 50% off “dozens of the best-reviewed games for the Wii U and Nintedo 3DS family”. A quick scroll through the online store shows some titles as low as $2.99 with other, newer titles coming in with a minimal discount.
Steam recently announced they were doing away with their Flash Sale system and any sales they have, moving forward, will stay at a steady price throughout the promotion.
As of this writing the only sale happening is an “Exploration Sale” that ends on December 1 at 10am PST. It’s not specifically billed as a Black Friday Sale and they may or may not announce something over the next couple of days.
Getting into the spirit of weeklong discounts, EA has a fairly substantial list of titles for PC Download with discounts up to 75% off. It’s the “up to” that will get you every time. Honestly, looking at this list, I think there is probably something for everyone and the prices are decent. For details and a complete list, hop online and head over to origin.com.
That’s everything I could find for the major players, if I’ve missed anything let me know and I’ll update the post. There is still plenty time for these companies to go hog-wild and discount more items for the actual day of Friday.
Don’t forget the big retail stores always have some pretty amazing deals; I’m looking at you Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and Best Buy. They might actually discount some of these console bundles lower than the manufacturer mandated prices. The prices dictated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo aren’t final discounts; stores can choose to slash the prices further.
So, pick your poison, go forth and game on.
Author’s note: Has Black Friday always been capitalized or has it just become so self important (read: crazy) it now demands capitalization?
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