On Black Friday, there's no such thing as instant gratification. You line up in the freezing cold of an early November morning, race into the store in hopes of securing one of the loss leaders on offer, and then sift through the wreckage of what remains to see if there's anything (or if you're lucky, anything else) to make your trip worthwhile. So why have I braved the crowds two years in a row? Well, I suppose it's probably because I'm greedy, and Black Friday is one of the few times of the year when brick and mortar prices are actually better than those found online.
But not this year. This year, I'm sleeping in, because the best deals for gamers this season aren't found in stores. Hit the jump, and I'll share the cream of the crop with you.
With the economy in turmoil, consumer confidence low and no way to know if consumers would turn out even for Black Friday deals, brick and mortar faced a chicken and the egg dilemma this year. If they slashed prices drastically, they'd have a greater likelihood of attracting shoppers; but at the risk of losing that extra money on each individual purchase. If instead, retailers lowered them slightly, they'd run the risk of not having enough to attract shoppers... you get the picture.
However, when it comes to video games at retail, those managing price cuts have most assuredly chosen the chicken half of the equation. Rather than discount the price of game hardware, they're offering bundles. "Get a PS2 with 6 Horrible Games For $130!!!" says Toys R' Us. They're offering gift cards -- like the $30 you can get back with a full-price Xbox 360 Pro bundle at Circuit City. Or, worse yet, they're claiming the default price of the machine they're offering is a Black Friday sale. Meanwhile, most game software up for grabs is discounted at the standard sale rate, too old to consider as a viable Christmas present, or something most simply won't care about. And even out of those few deals that might be worth waking up for, many are available for purchase online anyhow.
In short, I'm convinced that home is the place to be this holiday. Will any of these online deals convince you of the same?
Hardware:
Xbox 360 Elite with free Gears of War 2 and Lancer replica -- $400 -- Amazon.com (limit 500, offer gone as of 1PM PST)
80GB PS3 with free Resistance 2 Collector's Edition and official PS3 component cables -- $400 -- Amazon.com (limit 1000)
Xbox 360 Holiday Arcade Bundle w/ refurbished 20GB HDD, extra wireless controller -- $200 -- Circuit City (edit: out of stock online)
PS2 Lego Batman bundle -- $100 -- Amazon.com (edit: now $130)
Console Software:
Animal Crossing: City Folk w/ Wii Speak (Wii) -- $40 -- Amazon.com (edit: now full price)
Dead Rising (360) -- $10 -- Newegg (edit: sold out)
Endwar (360) -- $38 -- Best Buy (edit: sold out)
Heavenly Sword (PS3) -- $20 -- Amazon.com (edit: sold out)
Infinite Undiscovery (360) -- $20 -- Amazon.com
Pure (360, PS3) -- $30 -- Amazon.com (PS3), Amazon.com (360)
Soul Calibur IV (PS3) -- $38 -- Best Buy, Amazon.com
Handheld Software:
Crisis Core: FInal Fantasy VII (PSP) -- $15 -- Amazon.com (edit: sold out)
God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) -- $20 -- Amazon.com
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP) -- $10 -- Best Buy (edit: sold out)
Ninjatown (DS) -- $15 -- Best Buy (edit: sold out)
Personal Trainer: Cooking (DS) -- $10 -- Amazon.com
Rune Factory 2 (DS) -- $15 -- Amazon.com
PC Software:
Assassin's Creed (PC) -- $10 -- Best Buy (edit: sold out)
BioShock (PC) - $10 -- Best Buy
Fallout 3 (PC) -- $30 -- Amazon.com (edit: now full price)
Guild Wars - - $10 -- Amazon.com
Guild Wars: Eye of the North expansion -- $10 -- Amazon.com
Warhammer Online -- $20 -- Amazon.com
The full Amazon.com Black Friday blowout is here; thanks to CheapAssGamer for compiling the lists from which we picked our best bets for online Black Friday bliss.
November 28th, 2008 at 1:26 am
You still can't sleep in, because the good stuff is already sold out.
Still, how could you not put the $20 L4D on Amazon on the list? For shame, Sean.
November 28th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Indeed, for shame -- shame on Amazon for advertising a game at a particular price, and then changing that price when they reach a particular quota rather than when they actually sell out of the title.
By the time I got to Amazon at 12:55AM, L4D was already gone.
Now, Animal Crossing and Fallout 3 have both reverted to full price, despite the fact that stock is available.