GameStop deals started on Sunday — but the same hardware bundles are widely available elsewhere, too.
GameStop’s Black Friday sale is already up and running. The game retailer is effectively offering the same baseline $199 PS4 and Xbox One deals as every other big store under the sun — and those same sales are already available at Walmart, Best Buy and Target — and probably other retailers, too.
So with that caveat — basically “these deals are great, but widely available elsewhere” — here are the highlights. Note that:
As noted above, the same (great) 1TB PS4 + Spider-Man bundle for $199 is widely available elsewhere during Black Friday week.
GameStop is also offering the PSVR bundle for $249 ($100 off): the PSVR helmet, two Move controllers, the PlayStation camera, Creed: Rise to Glory and Superhot. Again, this one is widely available nearly everywhere, too.
As for titles, it’s a pretty nice selection of PS4 games at good prices — but you should check these versus other retailers, as well as the ongoing digital sale at the online PlayStation Store ( God of War is $8 cheaper there, for instance). Some notable recommendations (all PS4 exclusives):
The Xbox story is much the same. GameStop is offering the same 1TB Xbox One S Minecraft bundle for $199 that is available at nearly every other retailer.
Want the step-up Xbox One X instead? It costs twice as much, but it offers full 4K gaming and 4K Blu-ray support (the latter of which you won’t find on the PS4 Pro). Weirdly, GameStop doesn’t seem to have the $400 ($100 off) standalone version of the Xbox One X, but you can find that at Walmart and elsewhere as of today.
But it (and most other retailers) have the One X bundled with brand-new titles for just $30 more, including Fallout 76.
As for the Xbox One games that GameStop is advertising — they seem far less appealing than their PS4 equivalents, for this reason: All 4 titles highlighted in the GameStop circular — PUBG, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4 and State of Decay 2 — are available on the “all you can eat” Xbox Game Pass service, which Microsoft is offering to new users for $1 a month (to start) between now and the end of the year. If you have a fast internet connection, that’s the way to go. At least start with that to sample them, and then pay full price if you really fall in love with a particular title.
Weirdly, the Nintendo Switch is completely absent from the GameStop ad, so we want to make sure you know you can buy the Switch with Mario Kart 8 bundled in at no extra charge at many other retailers later in the Black Friday week.
Instead, GameStop is offering an oddball promo: You can get 30 percent off whatever “stuff” (with plenty of caveats) you can cram into a tote bag. Oh, and you need to spend $5 on the bag, to boot. Personally, it doesn’t look particularly fun to me — but you do you.
Originally published Nov. 13. Updated Nov. 18 with comparisons to newly available deals at Walmart and elsewhere.
