Amazon’s deals crush the competition

Amazon has always been a great place for gamers to shop. Their prices blow away the competition. The winter months are slow for new games, which leads to fantastic deals on older releases for console and PC games. GoozerNation has a list of games currently on sale that are worth picking up through Amazon.

[SaffronCurse]

I love Amazon!!!

[MAJ0R]

Steam definitely has competition now.

At this winter sale Valve wasn't very competitive with their prices, but I've noticed that since then, they have had much better daily deals other than the typical puzzle game.

[zeee]

I love Amazon as well but then state of Texas cut a deal with Amazon to charge tax. I used to prefer Amazon buying everything but now I can simply walk in Bestbuy and have the price match the same thing and walk out of the door without waiting for it even though Prime only takes 2 days (which is freakin' brilliant if you ask me). But still, if there is an option for me to get the same game for the same price on the same day, then bestbuy it is! Especially now when I have to pay taxes on Amazon too. It's just simple math.

But there are things that you can find on Amazon that you just can't find anywhere else. I got this very decent quality car Aux cable from Amazon for $2.50!!! Try to find something remotely close to that in Target or Bestbuy! Same goes for batteries, chargers and a lot more stuff! It's just that when it comes to video games, AMAZON at least in my case is not the same as before. Yup, tax makes that much of a difference now!

[dealzon]

Well said. Amazon digital deals this winter was many times equal, if not significantly better than Steam pricing (especially since most games are activated on Steam anyways).

The same applies for Green Man Gaming, which often gives Steam sales a run for their money too.

From our view, Steam wins either way given they're the platform of choice now.

[Krew_92]

@zeee

It's the same in California. They just made distribution centers all over Texas, that's why they charge tax.

Just like Newegg, I have to pay taxes because they have warehouses in California.

[guitarded77]

Yeah, I buy almost everything aside from groceries and auto fuel from Amazon. With Prime it's free two day shipping, and everything is cheaper. I only wish they could get their pissing match with Nintendo over with. They have to sell Nintendo consoles and some Nintendo first party items through third party, which often don't have Prime shipping because Amazon and Nintendo have something in their past. I tried to find out what the problem between the two is, but it's just speculation on the net... neither party have said what the problem is. Heard it was they couldn't get the same deal that WalMart gets, and boiled over to some bad blood. Anyway, I'm rambling... going to bed.

[Reverent]

What exactly does Prime offer? I've always been curious because I got a month of Prime for free and during that period, I had ordered Battlefield 3, Dead Island, and Dark Souls, but nothing really seemed to be any different than if I were to order any of those normally. Then again, they may have been third party, but even so, they all only took 3 days to get to me, which seems to be the normal for me when I order anything from Amazon.

Other than that, I didn't really delve too much into Prime.

[cogniveritas]

With Amazon prime you get free two day shipping. But by "free" it means you kind of just prepay the shipping with the yearly fee of $79 and you get free shipping on eligible products which are most of the popular items. If you order alot it can be worth it, and you get access to their video streaming service Amazon Instant.

[guitarded77]

With Prime you get free 2 day ship and free release day ship on pre-orders. You also get access to some free Amazon Instant Video... kinda like Netflix, and other various benefits.

If you are a college student, you get the first year free. After that, it's $39 (I think) a year for college students. It is $79 (I think) for non-college students. But even at $79 I would have saved enough in shipping alone to make it worth my wild. Amazon also offers the standard free shipping on orders over $25, but with Prime it's 2 day shipping free with no minimum purchase.

[showtimefolks]

the only people who think amazon still put on good deals are the ones who don't know that bestbuy and newegg has consistently beaten amazon in last 12-18 months

visit cheapassgamer daily bases its like a addiction to buy games and so hard to pass on a good deal

amazon about 2 years ago use to set the standard for what great deals should be like but now they are not even in top 5 when it comes to gaming deals.

cheapassgamer.com is a site run by gamers for gamers, never miss another deal and never pay full price because if you vsit that sit you will alawsy find a deal for brand news games with $20 gift cards from different stores

[WiiUsauce]

I don't think they "crush" the competition anymore, because Best Buy now price matches anything on Amazon as long as it's directly shipped and sold by amazon dot com. It's how I got 12 months of Xbox live at Best Buy for 35 dollars and you don't have to wait for shipping.

[_FantasmA_]

I get to play online for free everyday of every year. Its called PC, PS3, Vita and everything else. Why would you pay to play on P2P?

[lfclee]

Amazon Are Nothing But Tax Dodgers While We Struggle To Pay Our's Here In The Uk Working Hard They Don't Pay !

[Perjoss]

In the UK we have ShopTo, they often beat amazon prices and the deliveries are ridiculously fast. On top of being cheaper ShopTo also has a points system, I think its for every £30 you spend you get 75p credit.

[BlmThug]

Yeah I love ShopTo. By far my favourite online retailer with same day shipping and next day delivery. Also ypu are right, it's 25p for every £10 spent.

[Tetsujin]

The same can be said about ebay; and some of the deals the author mentioned is up to the seller, not always through amazon directly. Sometimes I prefer amazon because with tax and shipping certain products can be cheaper than store bought; A new copy of Skyrim with shipping was $49, Game Stop wanted the game "used" at $49.99 + tax.

All it comes down to, how patient are people when they order off the internet as opposed to buying in store; wait those extra few days to save $5-10 or buy it today for that price? There's other factors as well however price is #1 in most eyes.

[MeatheadMilitia]

You have clearly never heard of Steam

[Fatty]

Actually there have been quite a few times where I checked Amazon's price vs. the Steam price (even during a great Steam sale) and it was cheaper on Amazon. Usually Steam has it cheaper, but Amazon gets some amazing deals too.

[neonlight45]

This is true. I once bought Deus Ex: Human Revolutio (with missing link DLC), Just Cause 1 & 2 and two other games for $10 on black Friday.

[The Great Melon]

Whether you buy it on Steam or Amazon most (damn you EA and your Origin) games tend to activate on Steam anyways. A nice benefit of getting your games on Amazon is that they promise to provide you with another key if DRM shenanigans ever prevent you from accessing your game. Also, you often get a digital copy to download in addition to the Steam activated version.

[Sp1d3ynut]

You clearly have never used Amazon

[Brownghost]

amazon beat steam with its amazing bundles and the $5 coupon from the holidays from every purchase gave a lot more savings during January.

[Dark_Eternal]

I remember when I bought Just Cause 2 from Amazon, as it was considerably cheaper there than on Steam. As soon as it arrived, I activated it on Steam and then threw the disc away. :P

Also, Amazon Prime is great.

[Soldierone]

Gamefly is worth keeping an eye on. They don't always have sales, but randomly some games with overstock will go on sale. Just pay attention to high demanded games. After the renting surge is over, gamefly sells all the excess copies off.

I just got Ghost Recon for 10 dollars. Yeah its "used" but they come with brand new cases.

[MrBeatdown]

I love GameFly. I got Ghost Recon for $10 too. Just out or curiousity, I went back and counted how much I've spent versus what I paid over the past few years... $240 for 19 games. You can't beat that, especially since you get the new cases and online passes.

Best Buy is my go-to place for newer games though. It's $15 to get into their Gamers Club thing and it gets you $20 bonuses on a ton of new releases, plus you can still price match for a month after release.

[kma2k]

i have a gamefly account so i get an extra 10% off plus they give you $5.00 off any used game every couple months. Every year around christmas time i buy 4 or 5 games for dirt dirt cheap with the sales & additional sales. Last year i got Infamous 2, MLB 2012 the show, Sorcery, Spider Man Edge of Time, Gears of War 3, Batman Arkham Asylum, & Assassins Creed Brotherhood for $60.00

[schlanz]

Newegg secured roughly 15 preorders from me thanks to $15 off promo they ran awhile back (usually they do $10 off).

And hey, I won't complain about free shipping, no tax, and release day delivery either.

Amazon is great for games aleady released but their preorder deals are a shadow of their former greatness. Instead of $10-20 credits we get exclusive dlc.

[Double_O_Revan]

I miss those $20 game credits So much. I got a few free games because of them. Thanks to those great deals going away, I no longer preorder games from Amazon. But I do buy from them when they have great sales, which is often.

Picked up Hitman recently for $30!

[MrBeatdown]

You should try Best Buy's Gamers Club. It's $15 to get in, but they give you $20 in Reward Zone points for most of the big games, so you come out ahead with just one game.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site...

It's basically the same deal that Amazon used to do, but they seem to do it for more games. Plus, you can price match on top of that.

[Sp1d3ynut]

Yeah, Newegg has the occasional deals like that...I got BLOPS2, FarCry 3 and Halo 4 all with $12 off and free shpg. But Amazon still does the $20 pre-order bonuses...you just have to keep checking back closer to release time. I got Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 pre-ordered with the $20 credits. I'm not even unwrapping DS3...gonna do a "gift return for merchandise card" at Wal-mart", and use the $20 credit on another game.

[Double_O_Revan]

Nice! Those are actually the first games I've seen in a While to give out those kinds of credits. Or at least games that were worth getting.

I've decided to not get games at launch anymore and wait for the price drops. If I had bought Hitman at launch, it would've been a waste because I was still finishing up other games. Same can be said about AC3. I basically threw away at lease $20 because I was impatient on buying.

[Krew_92]

I also like their occasional $1 same day release day delivery when pre-ordering games.

I buy almost all my games on Amazon, almost all my Vita games have been delivered to me same day for only $1, except for the few that didn't seem to have the option. LittleBigPlanet Vita for example didn't have the option for me.

[SilverBullet129]

Dammit, tried getting CnC The Ultimate Collection but didn't go through cause I'm in Canada and downloads are USA only :(. For $17 that's an amazing price for that collection.

[memphis2]

amazon supporter all the way!

[WeAreLegion]

More like Goozex crushes the competition. They are the best online game trading business. ^_^

[madpuppy]

Not any more, I have 800 points and 5 trade points left with them and there is like 6 games available in the PS3 section (all sports games, blech), even their Movie section is running low. after online passes became the norm, people have just abandoned the sinking ship that is Goozex.

[Orionsangel]

"Hitman: Absolution is also on sale in the Warehouse. The price is almost at the $30 must-buy-it price point."

Steam recently had Hitman: Absolution for just $16.99. It's only a matter of time before it goes $9.99 on Steam. Why would I buy it at $30? I'm not a collector anyway.

[hazardman]

@mrbeatdown, thanks for that link man, that's an awesome deal! I'm gonna go to best buy and sign up for sure.

[black911]

Any deals on Motorstorm Apocalypse?

[optimus]

I buy most of my games from amazon. People forgot to mention that anything over 25 bucks gives you free shipping...last year i bought a digital download of Alan Wake for the amazing low price of $1.43... (i have yet to finish it cause it bored me half way), the downside being you can't sell or trade downloads but hey it's still a full game for under 2 bucks...

Recently they had a sale for the latest (and best) mortal kombat komplete kollection for 13 bucks...the trouble with best buy price matching it is they are usually sold out of the game you want (probably due to others with your same gameplan)... However, i did have them price match a 12 month gold subscription from amazon for 40 bucks over the holidays.

[hano]

One huge disadvantage, they only sell digitally to Ip's in the US.

Therefore, they can't compete with something like steam who sell to anyone in the world.

[CPTN MITCHELL]

Me gusta amazon!!!!!

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I loved Amazon more until CA mandated sales tax on anything bought from within CA. Still...Amazon Prime is a must have if you are one who buys alot from Amazon. 2 day free shipping on all ....and games almost always get a release day delivery.

Still I think the best deal I've come across for a new game pre-order bonus was via the MS Store. Black Ops 2 pre-order netted me the game at regular price a $10 gift code + 1600 MS points all for $59.99.

[MadMen]

This Article

FACT

[TotalHitman]

I honestly don't care as long as I save money on a game.

[ajax17]

I think I've bought about 75% of my games from amazon for this console generation. I just can't pass up those prices and free shipping. Especially when you subscribe to prime.

[TooTall19]

Greenmangaming is one of my new favorites.

[Psychotica]

Good prices but sometimes deceptive. For example, if you shop for the digital download of "Aliens:Colonial Marines" is says it's available now for download and that the release date is the 7th. This conflicts with the requirement of Steam that says it won't be released until the 12th.

[Welcome2Die]

Gamestops "Pre-Owned" games are only 10% off the new retail price, plus taxes.

Amazon has games alot cheaper and usually has free shipping. I have not bought a game from Gamestop since LA Noire, where it was 38.99 at GS and I bought it for only $21 on Amazon.

Also Pre-orders at GS require a 5 dollar deposit and then you pay taxes. On Amazon you dont get charged a cent until the game comes out and you usually get Release Day delivery, not to mention no extra taxes.

I think Amazon is the best place to shop for games, they really do have the best deals.

[Tunerboy8732]

I just bought the ps3 pulse headset,saints row the third and a couple blu rays off amazon.They have the best deals and carry everything i'm looking for if they sold food I probably would buy that too.

[lex-1020]

That was a terribly written article, and the "deal" they say was on Ni No Kuni was only 3 cents.

[mochachino]

Summer is the worst time for good game releases. Almost every year there's nothing. If a developer released a even decent big buget game during the summer I'd buy it in a second.

I find summer is the only time I get excited for PSN/Arcade games, and that's because there's nothing...absolutely nothing from June - August, well sometimes the last week of August has something but by then I'm too excited for what's coming in September and October.