A newly discovered firmware vulnerability could leave countless Windows and Mac computers at risk from a hack, according to security researchers from Duo Labs. The vulnerability could be used by malware to gain deep access to systems.
The bug involves the extensible firmware interface, or EFI, which is the first bit of code that runs when you hit the power button - part of its responsibilities include validating the software that's running on the machine.
Based on tests on 74,000 Apple Macs, the Duo Labs team found that the EFI firmware was not always being updated at the same time as the operating system, leaving a security hole that could potentially be exploited. The vulnerability could also affect Windows PCs, the researchers say.
Risk assessment
The good news is that a hack taking advantage of the EFI vulnerability would need to be quite a complex one, and it's only really worth the trouble if you've got some pretty important data locked away on your machine.
What's more, Duo Labs says it hasn't spotted anyone actively making use of this security loophole yet - it's working with Apple and other computer makers to get the bug patched. "For most people in most situations, the risk is currently not severe," the researchers say.
If you're on a Mac machine, updating to the latest version of the software (macOS High Sierra) is enough to squash the vulnerability. For more details about how the security vulnerability works and how to guard against an attack, see the Duo Labs blog.
The diminutive game console from Retro Games follows in Nintendo’s footsteps by offering an oh-so-appropriate 64 games from the Commodore 64 home computer that thrived in the 1980s.
As someone who actually owned a Commodore 64 (and still has it stashed around here somewhere), I admit I’m more fascinated by this than Nintendo’s offerings.
That’s partly because the C64 Mini isn’t just about the games, although there are some good fully-licensed ones tucked in here like Chip’s Challenge, California Games, and Impossible Mission. You can view some of the games here.
Honestly, speaking as an ‘80s kid, I see a few glaring omissions. The NES and SNES Classics do a good job of including iconic games for their era, but here I find no Lode Runner, Archon, Karateka, or Ghostbusters.
For me, at least, the console’s chief appeal is that it comes with the games along with the ability to run BASIC so you can create and save your own programs. You see, kids, back in the dark ages games were so scarce that we often had to program our own.
Memory trip
The C64 Mini marks a great improvement over the original in that you don’t have to deal with the glacial speeds of floppy drives and their clickety-clack racket.
At $70/£70/AU$89, it’s a tad expensive compared to Nintendo’s tiny adorable duo, but at least that price gets you a single joystick controller.
You get the BASIC functionality as well, along with two USB ports for another joystick or a full-sized keyboard. It also features HDMI support, as well as filters that mimic the rough images we all saw while playing on CRT screens in 1984.
Unfortunately, it won’t be home for Christmas. The site lists only a vague early 2018 release date with no specifics beyond that. If the “mini” aspect isn’t your thing, a full-sized version will reportedly also make an appearance next year.
Or, so we hope. As Gizmodo’s Andrew Liszewski notes, the team behind the C64 Mini also appears to be responsible for an Indiegogo-funded Commodore 64 clone called THE 64, which hasn’t shipped to backers despite a promised delivery date of December 2016.
Hopefully it’ll all work out. It should, as Koch Media is the distributor, and they've got a solid name in the games business.
In the meantime, I suppose we can all start waiting for the announcement of the Apple II Mini. Or maybe not. Knowing Apple, that’ll probably never happen.
Apple is looking at producing its own ARM processors for its notebooks Rather than relying on Intel CPUs for MacBooks. In the same self-reliant way it already makes in-house CPUs for the iPad and iPhone – it seems the company intends to produce all the chips for its devices.
It quotes the usual industry sources saying that Apple is ‘interested’ in building its own ‘core processors’ for notebooks – as well as modem chips for iPhones, plus a single chip that takes care of multiple duties: touch, fingerprint and display driver functions.
Modem chips for Apple smartphones are one thing, but building an entirely new processor for MacBooks is another entirely, because macOS is based on x86 architecture – it would require a huge amount of work to switch the operating system over to play nice with ARM CPUs.
Opportunity knocks
That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, though, the sources The Nikkei spoke with believe this is exactly what’s on the horizon.
One anonymous ‘chip industry executive’ commented: “Notebooks are becoming thinner, while consumers are demanding better mobility and longer battery life. That gives ARM's architecture, which is known for its power efficiency, a very good opportunity.”
Although Intel, too, is driving hard for power efficiency and greater performance in its mobile processors these days – as evidenced by the recent announcement of Kaby Lake Refresh.
But of course this move would also bring about independence for Apple. Also being able to bind hardware and software more tightly together, would help extract the maximum performance and efficiency from the firm’s laptops.
If this is indeed a vision of the Mac’s future, Intel wouldn’t be the only supplier to get the cold shoulder from Apple. Back in the spring, Imagination Technology was told that its GPU tech would no longer be needed, because Apple will be working on its own independent graphics design down the line.
Still, as we mentioned at the outset of this story, this particular ARM-comes-to-Mac rumor has been rattling around the net for a long time now, so forgive us if we don’t get too excited about the specter of big change at this point.
Nintendo has announced that it plans to close up the Wii Shop Channel on January 31 2019. After this date it’ll no longer be possible to buy titles or applications from the channel for either the Wii or Wii U consoles.
The process of closing up shop will actually begin before then, though, as from March 27 2018 users will no longer be able to add Wii points to their account.
When the shop does eventually close in 2019, Nintendo has said it’ll refund unused Wii Points and Wii Point Prepaid Cards though the process for how these refunds will be issued has yet to be decided.
Nintendone
Those who have already bought WiiWare or Virtual Console titles will still be able to re-download this content and use the Wii System Transfer to move items from the Wii to the Wii U. However, at some point in the future these services will also be closed (but Nintendo hasn’t settled on a date yet).
When these features do stop being available, Wii and Wii U owners will still own the content and be able to access the content they’ve purchased from the channel, they just won’t be able to erase it from the console if they want to continue to do so.
Given that Nintendo is now entirely committed to the Switch and handheld DS line, this shop closure is entirely unsurprising and certainly underlines that the Wii and Wii U are shifting into the company’s history rather than being part of its present. Committed Wii and Wii U owners will, however, always have the Nintendo eShop to access content from. Unless Nintendo one day drops support there too.
Over the last year, Microsoft has been seriously polishing its speech recognition chops – and improving Cortana – but how good is the firm’s digital assistant, really? Pretty darn good, and certainly streets ahead of Siri, claims some freshly produced research.
According to the report from digital marketing outfit Stone Temple (highlighted by Business Insider UK), Cortana successfully answered 2,825 questions out of a sample set of 5,000 factual knowledge queries, and of those questions answered, it got 82% of them right.
That’s a pretty good hit rate, and up there with the top-performing virtual assistant, namely Google Assistant which answered 3,405 questions and got 91% correct. Amazon’s Alexa was able to answer far fewer questions with a tally of 1,035, but did well when it came to getting 87% of those answers correct.
The worrying news for Apple was that Siri came last, only managing to answer 1,085 questions – barely more than Alexa – but doing way worse than Amazon with only 62% answered correctly.
Looking at the overall perspective, then, Cortana is really second only to Google Assistant, because while Alexa might have achieved a slightly higher percentage of correct answers than Microsoft’s AI assistant, Cortana was able to answer far more questions (almost treble Alexa’s tally).
Bing dinged
Apple will be hoping that things improve with its switch from Bing to Google as the default search engine used by Siri, a move announced earlier this week. The theory is that access to Google’s Search API and Knowledge Graph database will bolster Siri’s accuracy considerably, although that’s only speculation right now.
Meanwhile, it’s doubtless the case that Microsoft will further refine its speech technology, following the firm having set a ‘new industry milestone’ in terms of a low word-error-rate when it comes to voice recognition last month.
That might not help the accuracy of Cortana’s answers, but it will help her understand what you’re saying, and thus be more likely to comprehend and deliver an answer. It’s also part of Microsoft’s push to eventually enable ‘human-like’ natural conversations with Windows 10’s assistant – the Holy Grail when it comes to these digital entities.
Update:Ubisoft has announced that award-winning film composer, songwriter and music producer, Dan Romer, will be the composer for Far Cry 5.
In addition to composing the game's score, Romer will also be writing original songs and hymns, all of which will be available on a sold-separately soundtrack sold closer to the game's release.
Romer is known for working on films such as Beasts of No Nation and Beasts of the Southern Wild and his use of popular Americana instruments such as banjos and fiddles means he should be able to capture the perfect atmosphere for the game's setting.
Original article continues below...
Far Cry 5 is the latest game in Ubisoft's chaotic first-person open world shooter franchise and thus far it's looking like it may be the most controversial title to date.
Following on from the prehistoric and unexpected Far Cry Primal, Far Cry 5 is returning players to the modern day, this time in America. Specifically, a rural area known as Hope County, Montana.
Hope County has been taken over by a cult of religious fanatics and the game tasks the player with liberating the residents of Hope County and restoring peace and order to the area. Using violence.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The next installment in the open world first-person shooter franchise
What can I play it on? PS4, Xbox One and PC
When can I play it? February 27 2018
Far Cry 5 trailers
At this year's Ubisoft E3 conference, we were treated to two new trailers for Far Cry 5, one of which featured more controversial and thematically-revealing cinematics, while the other depicted actual gameplay. You can watch both of them for yourself below:
Alongside the game's initial announcement trailer, Ubisoft released a series of character trailers which give details on some of the interesting NPCs players will meet in Hope County and have the chance of recruiting to their resistance when playing the game.
Mary May: The Barkeep
Pastor Jerome Jeffries
Nick Rye: The Pilot
Our first look at Far Cry 5 came on Monday, May 22 when Ubisoft dropped the first teaser trailer for the game.
The 40-second trailer didn't offer much of an idea of when the game is going to be set, but it did tell us where: Hope County Montana.
Far Cry 5 release date
The game's announcement trailer revealed that the game would be available from February 27 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Hands on impressions
In the E3 demo for Far Cry 5, the very first thing we encountered was by far the biggest addition and change to the franchise in a while - guns for hire companions.
Before we started our mission we were given the choice of three companions: Grace Armstrong, a sniper able to provide accurate long-distance cover; Nick Rye, a pilot who can swoop in with his plane to drop bombs and spray devastating machine gun fire; and Boomer, a dog well-suited to stealthy take downs and a genuine sense of in-battle companionship.
Though we were tempted to go for Boomer (because who doesn’t love a canine companion in a video game?) we went for Nick, certain that he was the most capable of causing chaotic and widespread damage. We were not wrong.
Choose your companion
Once our companion was selected we were dropped into Fall’s End, a town in Hope County overrun by the game’s villainous religious cult and in desperate need of our help. You start the level from an advantageously high position and we were able to survey the chaos and devastation the people of Fall’s End were experiencing at the hands of the cult.
This was probably a good move as it made us feel a little less guilty about the bombs we were planning to rain down.
After scrolling through the weapon wheel to select our preferred weapon (the biggest and most dangerous-looking one, obviously) we jumped straight into the thick of the action and started firing bullets.
Unsurprisingly, the cult members reacted immediately and started running for cover, firing back. It was at this point that we started to question our decision to jump straight into killing every enemy in sight, a self-doubt that was exacerbated by the Ubisoft representative who delicately reminded us that a more stealthy approach was also an option.
It was at the point where we were cowering behind the shell of a truck, however, that we decided to employ the skills of our companion Nick Rye. Targeting one of the cult members in the center of the town, we pressed the button that would direct Nick to fire from his plane. Moments later, a satisfying explosion took place and we were saved the trouble of disposing of several enemies at once.
Knowing Nick was there for back-up made it much easier to take the brazen but exhilarating combat approach of walking straight into the open and shooting down enemies with abandon.
Creating safe spaces
Because of this, we were able to liberate Fall’s End fairly quickly, after which it became a safe place we could explore and interact with NPCs. After chatting to another possible companion, the barmaid Mary May, we made our way down to see Nick Rye to try out another form of combat in the game: aerial dogfights.
On the way to see Nick, we came across a woman being harassed by members of the cult at the side of the road. Random encounters like this in the game will be common and though you won’t have to stop and intervene to help every towns-person you see, it’s hard not to.
Aerial combat
When we finally took to the skies, we found Nick’s plane fun if slightly dizzying to use. The sheer amount of guns the thing is kitted out with make you feel invincible but chasing another plane through the sky in first person left us looping through the air for far longer than our sense of balance was comfortable with.
It became frustrating that we couldn’t zoom out for a wider view of the sky to find our enemy more quickly, though perhaps if we’d been more willing to slow the plane down we may have found the whole experience less stressful.
Familiar combat
Aside from its new guns-for-hire feature and the controversial setting, Far Cry 5 doesn’t really do much to change up combat. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and there’s definitely a sense of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ There was never anything wrong with Far Cry’s first-person controls.
With the addition of companions, things have been made a little more interesting as you feel like you have a powerful trick hidden up your sleeve when combat feels like it’s becoming overwhelming.
In addition to this, it’s an easy way to add diversity to combat - it’s up to you to pick the companion that suits your play style most and depending on who you choose could genuinely affect the way you decide to tackle a particular area. Had we taken sniper Grace as our companion, we wouldn’t have been nearly so gung-ho as we were with Nick.
Forming relationships
Aside from what we experienced, we were told by the Ubisoft representative that recruiting companions and forming relationships with them would be a big and interesting part of the game. It's up to you, then, to secure the companions you'd most like to have on your side and, more importantly, keep on your side.
Aside from using companions in single-player mode, players will also be able to bring their friends into the game to fight alongside them in co-op mode.
Far Cry 5 will also feature the hunting elements we’re used to seeing in the franchise and wild animal encounters will again be another danger in the game world, as well as religious fanatics. Players will be given the chance to create their own character at the beginning of the game, determining gender and appearance.
From our brief time with the game we got the sense that Far Cry’s controversial new narrative, combined with the more varied combat enabled by the new guns for hire feature, has the potential to breath fresh air into the long-running series.
News and features
What's the story?
The game will this time revolve around a religious cult in the USA called The Project, which rises up to take control of the town of Hope County when your character arrives in town.
You'll play a deputy sheriff trying to take them down. The leader of The Project is Joseph Seed, who calls himself The Father, and he resolutely believes that the end of days is coming and it's up to him to save the town whether they like it or not.
Gameplay
This will be an open world adventure like previous Far Cry titles with a range of vehicles you can use to explore, ranging from trucks and sports cars to gun-equipped planes and boats.
Hunting and driving
According to Ubisoft, vehicles and weapons will be customizable (more than they've been in any previous Far Cry game) so it'll be interesting to see what we'll be able to do with them.
Hunting will also make a return, with players able to fish and shoot at wild animals they encounter while exploring.
Guns for hire
There will also be a guns for hire element to the game.
Each of these recruitable characters has their own back story and motivations so the player will have to interact with them and form relationships to convince them to help rather than have immediate access to them.
Once they're on your side, you'll be able select these companions to join you in the game world. Each of them has a distinct skill to offer and it's up to you to decide which one compliments your play style most.
When they're fighting alongside you, you can direct them using simple d-pad controls, instructing them which enemies you'd like taken out without having to do the work yourself.
It's an interesting and game-changing feature for far cry as it adds some much-needed variety to the otherwise not-much-changed combat.
Character creation
We've been told that players will be able to create their own character in Far Cry 5 with a choice of gender and some degree of appearance customization.
Like your birthday, Christmas and Halloween, FIFA release day rolls around but once a year. That most wonderful time of year is almost upon us again with FIFA 18’s September 29 release date but a matter of hours away. Even though most of us at this point have accepted the FIFA franchise is a yearly cost and integrated it into our personal budgets that doesn’t mean we don’t want to get it for the lowest price possible.
With that in mind, we've rounded up the cheapest places you can pick up the game on release day on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
FIFA 18 is being released in three editions: standard, Ronaldo and Icon.
As you'd expect the Ronaldo and Icon editions will cost you a little more and come with some extras, but if you're not all that bothered about added Team of the Week loan players and Ultimate Team Gold Packs then you'll no doubt be satisfied with the standard version of the beautiful game.
Standard Edition
With the standard edition you pay the lowest price but you also get the least extra goodies. Included in this version is, of course, the full game as well as five FIFA Ultimate Team Jump Premium Gold Packs, Cristiano Ronaldo FUT loan player for five matches, and eight special edition FUT kits that have been designed by FIFA soundtrack artists.
At the moment it appears the cheapest place to get the game for PS4 and Xbox One is PC World at £44.99, while Asda grabs the top spot for Nintendo Switch at £47. While it was £45.99 on Very, that option is now sold out.
Ronaldo is the Fifa cover star this year, hence getting his very own edition of the game. If you pick up the Ronaldo copy you get 20 FIFA Ultimate Team Jumbo Premium Gold Packs, Cristiano Ronaldo FUT loan player for five matches and the eight special edition FUT kits designed by FIFA soundtrack artists.
The cheapest place by £10 to pick up the Ronaldo Edition on both consoles is ToysRUs.
The Icon Edition has the most additional features but naturally that means it also has the highest price point.
With this version you’ll get up to 40 FIFA Ultimate Team Jumbo Premium Gold Packs worth up to £89.99, three match FUT Team of the Week loan player as well as Cristiano Ronaldo FUT loan player for five matches and Brazilian Ronaldo Icon loan player for five matches.
Like the other editions, there are also the eight special edition FUT kits designed by FIFA soundtrack artists.
Rockstar promised brand new Red Dead Redemption news on September 28 and it delivered in a big way with the game’s second official trailer.
So, what have we learned about the game this time? Well, according to Rockstar the game will tell “the story of outlaw Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang as they rob, fight and steal their way across the vast and rugged heart of America in order to survive.”
Morgan certainly appears to be the game’s central character and the trailer describes him as “a wanted man.” He’s an anti-hero, then, given that throughout the minute and a half reel of footage, we see him behaving a little rudely towards other characters as he robs and threatens them.
Heading back in time
From what we can tell from the trailer, Red Dead Redemption 2 seems to be a prequel given that the antagonist from Red Dead Redemption, Dutch Van der Linde, shows his face at the end and his gang is a confirmed part of the action.
Other than that information is pretty thin on the ground. Visually the game looks to be on the right track as another Wild West adventure with plenty of horse riding, rugged terrain, fist fights and revolvers.
Unfortunately, the trailer didn’t narrow down the game’s release date which still stands as Spring 2018 for both PS4 and Xbox One, after it was delayed earlier this year.
Assassin’s Creed has always been a franchise with a grand vision both in terms of the scale of its worlds and its narratives. Telling a story that has a foot in our present while making history an accurately and respectfully recreated playground is no small task but the team behind Assassin’s Creed has been doing so for over 10 years.
Over that decade it has, however, sometimes felt like the development team’s vision was slightly ahead of its time – like they wanted to deliver more than they were able to in the time they had with the tools they were using.
Each game has had mind-boggling amounts of research behind it that’s been used to recreate stunning historical locations to an astounding degree of accuracy and make them feel convincing and immersive.
However, despite impressive scope and visuals, the games have been repeatedly pulled down by bugs and glitches and the sense of history being our playground has been undermined by arbitrarily locked maps and restrictive, repetitive gameplay.
Grand designs
With Assassin’s Creed Origins, Ubisoft is promising to reinvent the series with its biggest, most open game ever. When we sat down with the game’s creative director, Jean Guesdon, he told us that a lot of what the team has managed to achieve this time around is largely down to now having “the tech to do whatever [they] want.” And maybe a little more time.
“I’ve been working on [the series] for 11 years now, since Assassin’s Creed 1. We’re dealing with human history, something that’s so rich that the possibilities are endless and we’ve already explored many time periods,” Guesdon told us.
“We still have many choices left but Egypt was one of the most desired settings by players and ourselves. We felt that we were ready to build it and recreate it as accurately as possible. Now we have the tech to do whatever we want and the ideas are not missing.”
When we asked Guesdon what kind of tech the team now had that they didn’t before and how it had helped he told us it was twofold. First of all, there’s the consoles: “When you talk about recreating an entire country it requires a powerful console and consoles are now mature enough to allow us to bring that with a level of quality you’d expect.”
Of course, we’ve already seen previous Assassin’s Creed titles on current generation consoles, but it’s the new 4K and HDR capabilities of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X that appear to have the Assassin’s Creed’s art team excited.
During a press presentation, the game’s art director Raphael Lacoste was keen to point out the importance of lighting in recreating an Egypt that felt real. The region’s relatively flat landscape, he said, meant that a stark contrast between light and shadow were important for creating depth and really highlighting the brightness and heat of the sun.
The HDR support being offered by new consoles must, then, be exciting we posited to Guesdon.
“Absolutely,” he replied, “the artistic team finally has the tools they needed to bring the beauty of Egypt to its completion and now players will be able to enjoy it and its massive scale. As soon as you play the game you get the sense of immersion and it’s a real blessing.”
There have, of course, also been internal technology advancements that have helped, namely in the Anvil game engine. Anvil is Ubisoft Montreal’s proprietary engine that’s been used in its various forms to develop all of the Assassin’s Creed games.
Revving the engine
According to Guesdon “Anvil is now at its full maturity [...] we’ve continued to push and we added some new tools to create the terrain.” As a result of these advancements it’s been possible for the development team to “increase the productivity and bring this entire world fully developed from underwater to the top of each mountain.”
Breaking out of the yearly release cycle was naturally a help, too, and Guesdon acknowledged this: “We used this extra year, it was really important for us because it was giving us the opportunity to come back for the 10th anniversary with a very big strong and polished game. Especially dealing with this setting, ancient Egypt, Cleopatra’s era – it’s something that’s massive and we’re really happy with result after four years of development.”
Whether or not the team is now planning to go back to this yearly release cycle or move to releasing a game every couple of years Guesdon told us he couldn’t say. The focus now, he said, was on “delivering the best possible experience for Assassin’s Creed Origins.”
Given that the team is excited by advancements in development technology, we wondered whether the Assassin’s Creed team would be interested in using it to develop for new platforms. The new Discovery Tour game mode, we suggested, has the potential to lend itself particularly well to virtual reality. Sadly, a virtual reality mode isn’t in the immediate future for the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
However, Guesdon did praise VR’s ability to “push immersion like never before” before adding “maybe one day the two will meet. For the moment that’s not the plan.” At the moment, the team is aiming “to deliver a very good first iteration [of Discovery Tour] in early 2018 and then we’ll see from there what makes sense in terms of future potential development.”
If you’re disappointed with the line-up of games included in the SNES Classic Mini, there is good news for you. Someone who managed to get their hands on a console a little early has managed to hack it.
According to a Reddit post, the same program that could be used to hack the NES Classic Mini works just as well on the new retro console.
SpongeFreak52 found that the Hackchi2 program works without any additional tinkering:
“After playing a few games, I wanted to see how it would behave when thrown at Hakchi2. To my surprise (though I guess I shouldn't have been given the hardware similarities), it CAN have its kernel dumped and re-written with it with the current version.”
Enjoy this hack
He even tried putting a NES kernel in to see what happened, and it just made the power light blink. Luckily, reverting back to the SNES kernel also proved pretty easy to do.
You might think that Nintendo would want to dissuade people from hacking it’s console, but it seems that might not be the case. SpongeFreak52 signed off his post with this: “As a nice surprise, it looks like Nintendo fully anticipated this, and left a note for tinkerers within the NAND! Hidden within the /etc directory is a file simply named "nineties", which contains:
The free games you get with a PlayStation Plus subscription can be a bit hit and miss, but this month includes what is hands down the most interesting game of recent years, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
Now, to be clear, we're not claiming the final part of the Metal Gear saga is a perfect game. Its main issue is its second half, which is patently unfinished.
Missions simply repeat themselves on a harder difficulty (complete with completely incongruous story elements left unchanged), and the story itself just kind of peters out without any real resolution or conclusion.
A solid game at its core
But underneath the rough edges, The Phantom Pain has one of the most solid stealth games ever made at its core.
The open world and its missions are truly open, and can be approached in any way you please. Sure you could rush into the meeting between the three arms dealers guns blazing, but if you think a little more tactically then you can pull off neat tricks like planting a C4 explosive on the back of one of their jeeps and letting them deliver the explosive themselves.
MGS5 is the culmination of years of iteration of the stealth formula by Kojima and his team, it's the most complete it's ever been, and, thanks to Kojima's untimely departure from Konami, it's the most complete its ever likely to be.
You owe it to yourself to play MGS5, and getting it free as part of a PS Plus subscription is the perfect way to do so.
The way PlayStation Plus's free games work is that while you have a subscription, you have the ability to download certain games for free every month. You're free to keep and play the games for as long as your subscription is active, even if you need to reinstall them after deleting them.
We've collected together the cheapest PlayStation Plus subscriptions below.
Best Buy’s Cyber Monday deals will be among the best ways to upgrade any and all of your electronics or appliances this year. While Best Buy’s Black Friday deals will offer plenty of great options, Cyber Monday is all about getting similar deals from the comfort of your own home.
Cyber Monday 2017 falls on November 27, but it’s likely that Best Buy will have deals all throughout the weekend before, and potentially even during the week of Cyber Monday. To find the best deals, keep your eye on this page, as we’ll keep it update with all that we find.
Shopping online at Best Buy might not help you clearly picture how a new laundry machine or big screen TV will fit into your house, but it will definitely make it easy to quickly browse everything Best Buy has to offer. Online shopping also makes it easy to compare prices and features of various products without having to run up and down aisles and repeatedly check product description tags.
Since Best Buy Cyber Monday deals are sure to include a lot of TVs, computers, and smartphones, being able to compare product specifications and features across multiple devices at once will help you find the best product at the best price.
For those hoping upgrade their existing array of electronics and software, Best Buy’s Cyber Monday deals are sure to include something that will do just that.
Best Buy ads to leak ahead of time
Ads for Best Buy's greatest Cyber Monday deals will likely start showing up over the weekend after Thanksgiving. Currently, there are none available.
Spotting advertisements early offers a good opportunity to find the most interesting deals and compare them with the discounts other major retailers are offering. Planning what to buy where means knowing where the deals actually are. Best Buy will have plenty of deals showing up for electronics, but don’t forget to check for deals from retailers that aren’t exclusively focused on electronics to see if they have similar or better deals.
In November, some Cyber Monday ads might leak early. Check back here regularly to see if any have shown up so you can have the best opportunity to plan your shopping for Cyber Monday.
Before Cyber Monday: Current Best Buy deals
Best Buy has a massive 29-inch Ultra-Wide LG monitor for $209 after a $140 discount. The monitor uses a 2,560 x 1,080 resolution IPS panel for wide viewing angles, and includes FreeSync for a smoother gaming experience.
Best Buy has a deal going on Apple's MacBook Pros. Many are $150 off, including this 13-inch MacBook Pro for $1,649. It includes 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and an Intel Core i5 processor.
Whether it’s hardware or software, you can expect there to be a deal at Best Buy this coming Cyber Monday. There are likely to be sales on Windows laptops, Chromebooks, and MacBooks. Software packages like Adobe’s creative suite and Microsoft Office are likely to have discounts as well.
Video games and gaming consoles are always popular items on Cyber Monday, so expect to see discounts on Sony’s, Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s consoles. Look out for deals on new games as well, such as Star Wars Battlefront 2, Destiny 2, Pokken Tournament DX, Middle Earth :Shadow of War, Assassin’s Creed Origins and plenty more. The new Xbox One X will also be hitting the market in early November, so bundle deals should be popular for Best Buy this coming Cyber Monday.
Best Buy already has occasional deals on smartphones like the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S8, but expect even more offerings come Cyber Monday. The iPhone 8 and Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will have been on shelves for a little while by then, so look out for deals surrounding the two smartphones, though don't expect insane price cuts.
Best Buy also offers a number of services, so if you’re looking for complicated electronics that might require installation or setup, keep an eye out for any discounts Best Buy offers to get your new purchases in working order.
Best Buy Cyber Monday advice
Thanks to its online nature, Cyber Monday doesn’t have the same nightmarish stampede at Best Buy’s doorways as Black Friday has been known for. Unfortunately, too many people trying to get to Bestbuy.com at the same time can result in you not being able to find the product you want and press the buy button. Try to find some backup retailers to buy from if you know what you want, so that internet congestion doesn’t ruin the day.
You can also try using a VPN to get around an endless loading screen in your browser. This will help you route your internet connection through a server in a different part of the country, where Bestbuy.com servers might not be as busy. This could let you make your purchases while everyone else in town spends Cyber Monday clicking their browser’s refresh button.
If you want to be sure you’re getting the best price online before you press the buy button, check out TechRadar’s Pricehawk Chrome extension. It allows you to compare the prices between multiple retailers so you can decide where to buy for the best Cyber Monday deals.
For those shoppers on the prowl for very specific products, make sure you know the exact model number of the product you want before hand. Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday come with a load of deals and special products that can trip you up. For example, if you’re looking for a 55-inch LG 4K TV, you might see a half-dozen different models that are 4K and measure 55 inches, but they could use different screen technologies or offer widely varying features. If you know exactly which model you want in advance, you can avoid being blinded by the lower price tag or greater discount on what may be an inferior product.
Lastly, when you find a product you know you want, don’t be slow about getting it. Inventory levels are your worst enemy on Cyber Monday. If you’ve had a webpage open for a while, the listed inventory may be lower than you see on your screen. And if you let items sit in your cart for too long, it’s possible you’ll find they’ve sold out when you go to make the purchase. Don’t be impulsive, but do plan early so you can act fast.
Best Buy’s Black Friday deals will be among the best in 2017 for tech gadgets, electronics and appliances. This Black Friday 2017 is on November 24, the day after Thanksgiving.
Best Buy is already a great place to shop when you’re looking for anything tech, from a new 65-inch TV and an Ultra HD Blu-ray player to use with it to all the appliances you need to fully renovate your kitchen. You can even get a new sound system installed in your car while you shop.
All of that shopping gets better on Black Friday, when these big-ticket items see their prices come out of the sky and down toward something more realistic for shoppers on a budget. Sure, some electronics are still going to be expensive, but Black Friday will be an opportunity to get the best price on them.
Anyone hoping to upgrade their kitchen, living room, gaming setup or even their car can expect Best Buy’s Black Friday deals in 2017 to make serious upgrades way more affordable.
Best Buy ads to leak ahead of time
Ads for Best Buy Black Friday deals haven’t leaked yet, but they will likely start popping in the lead up to Thanksgiving, giving shoppers an opportunity to see what’s going to be on sale.
Taking a look at early ads can help you figure out what you want to buy and where. Best Buy will have a lot of deals, but it’s important to compare the deals from these ads with other retailers ads to see where you can get the best price on the product you want.
Knowing which stores will have the products you want will also help you plan your Black Friday better, as you’ll want to target the best deals as early as possible to avoid finding an empty shelf.
Expect some advertisements for Best Buy Black Friday deals to leak early, and check back here. We will post the advertisements as soon as we find them, giving you an opportunity to check the deals out early and compare with other retailers.
Before Black Friday: Current Best Buy deals
Best Buy has a 17-inch Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 laptop for $899 after a $150 discount. It's packed with a 7th-gen Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive and even a dedicated GeForce 940MX graphics processor.
A 27-inch Acer Full HD monitor is just $139 after a $110 discount. It has IPS display technology for wide viewing angles, and a low response time making it ready for gaming.
Since Best Buy is a major electronics and appliances store, expect some serious deals in these categories.
Last year, there were deals on loads of 4K TVs. So for Best Buy Black Friday deals in 2017, expect even 4K TVs with HDR.
The new iPhone 8 is now on the market, so when Black Friday 2017 comes around, Best Buy will probably offer some incentive to customers, such as hefty gift cards. The Samsung Galaxy S8 has already been getting a lot of great deals recently, but expect even better ones to pop up for Black Friday.
Last year there were deals on the Xbox One S bundled with games like Gears of War 4 and Battlefield 1 and the PS4 bundled with Uncharted 4. Expect this year to include deals on the new Xbox One X and Star Wars Battlefront 2, as well as the PS4 Pro and Destiny 2.
Drones and cameras will also be sure to see loads of deals, and all types of computers and computer parts are likely to see lowered prices.
Best Buy Black Friday advice
A lot of people shop Black Friday, so there will be heavy competition for all of the best deals. Prioritize the items you want most and the ones with the largest amount of savings, so you can get to them before they sell out and maximize your savings on Black Friday.
Pay close attention to the dates listed on deals. Black Friday has grown into something of a weeklong affair in recent years, so see if any deals start earlier, and be sure to go for the ones you want as soon as you can
If you pay attention to product reviews, and you know exactly the product you want, make sure to check model numbers when you’re in the store. Black Friday can come with some special models made just for the shopping day, and a 55-inch Sony 4K TV you find on the shelf this Black Friday might not be the same as the one you read all the glowing reviews about.
If you find a Best Buy Black Friday deal you want, try to determine if it will also be online. Competition in stores can make it hard to get in the door and snag the product you want before it sells out, so having the internet as a backup (or even primary) method of getting the product may help you land the deals you’re most excited about.
Check out TechRadar’s Pricehawk Chrome extension to compare the prices you see online with those offers by other retailers. Always make sure you’re getting the best deal, or find back-up retailers in case Best Buy sells out of the product you wanted.
If you plan to shop mostly online, a VPN may help you avoid internet congestion. Too many people going to the same website to get the same deals can result in next to no one actually reaching the page. With a VPN, you can route your traffic to a different region that may not have servers so busy, allowing you to essentially beat the line.
Finally, if you’ve found a deal that you absolutely have to have, don’t sit around. Popular products sell out quickly on Black Friday, so buy what you want before it’s gone.
After taking a year off to find itself, the Assassin’s Creed franchise returns this October with a brand new title called Origins. Set in ancient Egypt, Origins takes players further back in time than any previous game AC title, with the game’s developers promising it’s a complete reinvention of the series.
In Assassin's Creed Origins players can expect overhauled combat, a completely open world and quest structure, and brand new RPG elements that give more freedom than we’ve seen before. What remains the same, however, is the extensive historical research that underpins everything.
In fact, Origins will actually take the historical aspect of the franchise one step further with a brand new Discovery Mode.
Live and learn
Across the Assassin’s Creed series we’ve visited various points in history. Though the games’ stories naturally take some creative license with that history, there has always been a convenient and educational in-game encyclopedia that allows interested players to learn a little more about the people, locations and events of the time and place they’re exploring.
Discovery Mode in Assassin’s Creed Origins will go beyond the pictures and large blocks of text we’ve had the option to access before.
Instead, it’ll offer a kind of in-game guided tour. Stripping combat and narrative out of the equation, players will be able to explore the game world and indulge their desire to learn about the era.
Starting up Discovery Mode will give the option to select one of a range of characters that will apparently include men, women and children, after which it’ll be possible to jump into the game’s open world and roam to learn rather than assassinate.
When in the game world and exploring, different areas or people will appear as interactive stations where the player will be able approach, press a button and listen to a guided explanation of what’s happening.
It’ll still be possible to explore the world as you would in the main game – using horses, chariots and scouting with your eagle Senu – there just won’t be the pressure of quests or restricted areas filled with enemies.
A virtual museum
It appears to be a virtual and far more immersive version of walking around a museum with an audio tour that you start up when in the relevant section of the room.
Each tour section will give players an estimated length so that they don’t end up in the gaming equivalent of a Wikipedia black hole. For those interested in delving further, there will still be encyclopedia-style images and text sections to dig into.
All of the information and imagery you can access in discovery mode is sourced from genuine academic experts and museums across the world.
We got a very short glimpse of the mode for ourselves at a recent presentation. In what we saw, the player was able to approach a table in the game where an NPC was performing a mummification.
Approaching this table, which in the main game would simply be a background event for environmental authenticity, players are able to listen to an expert explain the process of mummification in detail and the ritualistic significance of it.
According to the game’s developers, parents and teachers alike have said that children are more engaged with and interested in history as a result of playing and reading the in-game encyclopedia. After 10 years, the team felt it would be time to take this feature further and offer something more to the players genuinely interested in the history behind the game’s world.
A lot of research goes into the Assassin’s Creed series to create an immersive and authentic game world. As a result, much of the research gathered is almost hidden in the environment and the actions of NPCs or not used visibly at all so this offers a way to push the interesting background details of the game to the front.
Discovery Mode won’t be a part of Assassin’s Creed Origins when it’s released in October. Instead, it’ll come to everyone as a free update in early 2018.
One of the main benefits of being an Xbox Live Gold subscriber is definitely the fact that each month you get access to a range of free games across the Xbox One and Xbox 360 platforms. If you’re an Xbox One owner, backwards compatibility means you get to take advantage of the Xbox 360 titles too.
This is a great way to try games you might not otherwise have played, whether because they're indie titles that slip under your radar or simply because you don’t have the funds to buy several games a month.
Even if you don’t have the console memory or the time to spare right now, we’d say it’s always worth claiming them every month anyway as you’ll then have free access to them for as long as you have an active Xbox Live account.
Since this is a monthly event, we’ve decided to create a one-stop shop where you’ll be able to find the newest free games, as well as scroll back and see which games were featured in previous months. That way you’ll know whether it’s worth holding out for a game to appear in an upcoming Games with Gold month or if it's already been offered.
So without further ado, here are the free Xbox Live games in North America, Europe, and Australia for October 2017.
Don't forget some of the September titles are still available too!
Gone Home is something a little bit different from the fast-paced action games you might be used to. Rather than rushing to fight enemies or solve puzzles, the game instead sees you slowly exploring your family home, finding clues to piece together what's happened to its inhabitants.
What results is a captivating love story that's well worth playing through.
Another first-person experience with a twist, The Turing Test is a puzzle game where you play as Ava Turing as she attempts to solve the mysteries of Europa.
This entry in the long-running Medal of Honor series casts you as a member of the 82nd AirBorne Division as you fight against the Axis in World War 2. The game features a mechanic unique to this particular entry in the Medal of Honor series whereby you can start each mission wherever you please on the map.
September 2017
Xbox One
Forza Motorsport 5: Racing Game of the Year Edition – September 1 to 30 (usually $39.99 / £23.99/ AU $69.95)
With Forza Motorsport games you can usually be pretty confident of what you're going to get – stunning graphics, satisfying controls and a whole lot of racing. Forza Motorsport 7 might be coming out soon but you can get warmed up for the next races with this Game of the Year Edition of 5 which includes a new graphics engine with 17 tracks, and the Top Gear Car Pack with 10 additional cars.
Once you've relived your childhood dreams of being a racing driver in Forza, you can move towards your more moody teenage years with the award-winning Oxenfree. A supernatural thriller that might just appeal to fans of Stranger Things, this narrative choice-driven tale will suck you in with its story and its atmospheric visuals.
Xbox 360
Hydro Thunder Hurricane – September 1 to 15 (usually $9.99/ £7.69/ AU $12.29)
If arcade-style speedboat games float your - er - boat then you might be interested in Hydro Thunder Hurricane. This game has a huge selection of boats and courses for you to play around in, whether you want to do so online with others or in single-player mode.
Become an elite US Marine and fight in locations all over the globe in this addition to EA DICE's Battlefield series. Using the Frostbite 2 engine, it looks fantastic and the destructible world will make you really feel immersed in the action.
Slime Rancher is a game that tells the story of Beatrix LeBeau, a rancher who leaves Earth to live on the ‘Far, Far Range’ where she has to learn how to wrangle slimes rather than cattle. It's challenging enough leaving Earth but Beatrix has to learn how to use vacpacs and jetpacks as her tools.
Trials Fusion – August 16 to September 15 (usually £15.99/ $19.99/ AU $29.95)
Love bikes? You might be interested in Trials Fusion. Building on previous games, Trials Fusion is the fifth installment and has players take control of a motorcycle rider with physics-based controls. You can play through a variety of tracks and courses with obstacles, performing tricks and stunts as you go. You have the option to go it alone in career mode or play online and compete with friends and with the track editor you can even create your own new challenges.
Bayonetta could be classed as a simple hack and slash video game but at the same time it's so much more than that. Stylish and delightfully over the top, it has you take up the role of the eponymous witch who uses magic and a variety of insane weapons to defeat her enemies. It's critically acclaimed and for good reason.
Red Faction: Armageddon – August 16 to August 31 (usually £24.99/ $29.99/ AU $49.95)
Set fifty years after the first game in the franchise, this third person shooter tasks you with saving Mars from being destroyed after a short period of fifty years of peace. You can either go it alone in a single player campaign or play co-cooperatively online with friends but either way you're in for some basic destructive fun.
The SNES Classic Edition (or SNES Mini, if you prefer) launches this week after months of hype and expectation, and we dearly hope you're reading this as one of the lucky few who actually managed to secure a pre-order, thereby avoiding the agonising process of having to sift through countless eBay listings looking for the one unit which won't require you to remortgage the house or sell a kidney.
Hypothetically speaking, let's say you are one of those people and you're wondering which game you should boot up first the moment the SNES Classic lands on your doorstep with a satisfying thud.
However, just trying to rank the games on this thing has proven to be quite the challenge. Practically each and every title included on the system can rightly be regarded as a solid-gold classic, and ranking them has involved some serious hair splitting.
So read on for our definitive ranking of the SNES Classic Edition's games, ranked from worst to best.
Kirby's games struggled to find a truly receptive audience outside of Japan until very recently, and the odd combination of cute platforming and golf that's on display here makes Kirby's Dream Course a bizarre inclusion on the SNES Classic; the gameplay is fun but there are plenty of better games that could have be featured instead of this – Super Tennis is the one we're most aggrieved about not seeing.
Not a terrible game by any means, but Nintendo could have done better.
The comical sequel to the original Punch-Out!! might lack Mike Tyson's beaming mug – he was included in the initial NES version before being replaced by "Mr. Dream" – but it's a better game overall thanks to deeper gameplay and large, appealing pugilists.
The big issue is that it's too easy to memorise the tactics required to defeat each opponent, and this severely curtails the game's long-term appeal.
Capcom's side-scrolling action platformer is still as tough as old boots, with pixel-perfect precision required to overcome its grim fantasy levels. As an early release on the system it dazzled players with colourful and detailed graphics, but the crippling slowdown which occurs at busy moments is hard to stomach, especially in 2017. Still a classic, but one which has perhaps aged less gracefully than others.
Street Fighter II owes much of its enduring success to the million-selling ports which graced the SNES, with Turbo being the second to hit store shelves.
With 12 playable characters (including the four bosses this time around) and a mirror-mode which lets both players select the same fighter and a much-needed speed boost, it remains irresistibly playable, especially if you can convince a fellow carbon-based lifeform to play – but superior versions of the game exist.
Something of a superstar on the 8-bit NES, Mega Man – or Rockman as he's known in Japan – appeared in several eye-catching 16-bit adventures. Mega Man X was the first and, some would argue, the best. It arguably struck the perfect balance between technical wizardry and compelling platforming action.
Nintendo's first Mode 7 racer may lack the embellishments of its more technically advanced sequels F-Zero X and F-Zero GX, but it's arguably the most accessible and instantly enjoyable entry in the series. The colourful presentation, tight controls and challenging courses make for a purebred speedfest which hasn't aged one bit; only the lack of a two-player mode holds it back.
Released for the first time ever on the SNES Classic, Star Fox 2 is perhaps the game many owners of the new system will boot up first. It's a fascinating illustration of how to evolve a gameplay concept, and jettisons the linear structure of the first game in favour of a more open, randomised set-up, with each gameplay session differing greatly from the last. The only negative is that things can sometimes feel a little loose and lacking in coherence.
Rare's pioneering use of pre-rendered characters caused jaws to drop all over the world when Donkey Kong Country made its debut in 1994, and while the game owes a massive debt to Super Mario, it's polished and entertaining enough to stand on its own as one of the best 16-bit platformers ever made.
David Wise's groundbreaking soundtrack is the cherry on the top; how he made a non-CD system produce tunes of this quality is beyond human comprehension.
Known as Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe, this is a surprisingly robust collection of seven games, some of which have more depth than you might imagine. There are plenty of homages to other classic Nintendo games to be found, and because this was released quite late in the life of the SNES, it boasts some truly impressive, cartoon-like visuals.
It's hard to believe that this was one of Konami's earliest SNES outings; with its incredible visuals, stirring soundtrack and impressive Mode 7 bonus levels, Contra III is rightly regarded as one of the finest run-and-gun blasters available. The two-player mode means you can bring a friend along for the ride, too.
Back in 1993, this was utterly groundbreaking stuff. The first SNES game to feature the assistance of the Super FX chip, Star Fox delivered cutting-edge 3D visuals in your living room. Ironically, the simplistic, unshaded polygon graphics lend the game a timeless quality, while the thrilling gameplay and superb music keep you glued to your controller.
Never released in the UK, this Squaresoft-developed RPG epic came late in the lifespan of the SNES and adopted the then-commonplace "CGI" look for its visuals – a fact which has perhaps caused it to age faster than other 16-bit examples of the genre. However, the game combines the best elements of Final Fantasy's turn-based combat system with action-based commands that make battles feel more exciting and skill-focused.
The gothic platformer starts off slow but soon develops into one of the best entries in Konami's long-running vampire-hunting series. Notable for its excellent use of Mode 7 sprite scaling and rotation, it's also famous for its beautiful soundtrack – another demonstration of just how adept the Sony-made sound chip inside the SNES really is.
Known as Final Fantasy III in the US only – it's actually Final Fantasy VI in the true chronology of the series – this is regarded by many as one of the finest JRPGs ever made, and with good reason. As well as possessing the usual gripping and addictive gameplay the franchise is famous for, this stellar outing also includes some of the most memorable characters to ever feature in a role-playing adventure, and packs a dramatic storyline to boot.
The second title in the Mother series of RPGs, EarthBound isn't like any other role-playing adventure you've seen. Set in modern times, it replaces dragons and orcs with bizarre aliens and its heroes are ordinary school kids who find themselves wrapped up in a fierce conflict which puts the fate of the world in the balance. Boasting an iconic soundtrack, humorous script and moving storyline, EarthBound is a true classic – despite not having seen release in the UK during the SNES' lifespan.
While it lacks the massive, non-linear structure of Super Mario World, this sequel harnesses the power of the Super FX chip to create some of the most eye-catching visual trickery ever achieved on the SNES. Instead of controlling Mario you're in charge of Yoshi, who can float in mid-air and hurl eggs at enemies. With a fresh gameplay idea on almost every each level, this is Shigeru Miyamoto at his most inventive and playful.
Arguably one of the most influential video games of all time, Super Metroid is the title responsible for laying down the "Metroidvania" blueprint so skillfully adopted by modern titles, such as the superb Axiom Verge. Konami's 1997 adventure Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is also credited with popularising this style of game, but it's Nintendo's SNES epic which should get the lion's share of the credit. Exploring a massive alien world packed with hidden passageways, new weapons and bloodthirsty enemies has rarely been this entertaining; this year's Metroid: Samus Returns on 3DS continues this fine tradition.
The game that started it all. Now a quarter of a century old, Super Mario Kart has to rank as one of the most influential titles in gaming; it created a whole new racing sub-genre and established a series which – at the time of writing – has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. And you know what? The 1992 original is still playable as its sequels, especially when there are two people involved. Don't forget that battle mode, too.
Recently confirmed for the reboot treatment by Square Enix, Secret of Mana – or Seiken Densetsu 2, as it's known in Japan – is comfortably one of the most iconic JRPGs in existence. It got pretty much everything right back in 1993; engaging real-time combat, sumptuous visuals, gorgeous music and – perhaps most important of all – a gripping storyline populated with memorable characters.
The best platformer ever made? We personally don't feel there's any room for debate here; Super Mario World is nothing short of a masterpiece; a finely-tuned 2D epic spanning a massive, non-linear game world which is literally bursting with new ideas. Finishing every single stage takes days if not weeks of effort, and the controls are tight and joyfully precise. And to think this was one of the first games released on the SNES – remarkable.
Here it is – the big one. While subsequent Zelda adventures have expanded the scope of the series, A Link to the Past remains the best instalment for many fans. It's the benchmark many RPGs attempted to emulate in the decades that have passed since its launch; Nintendo's game managed to combine real-time combat, challenging boss battles, head-scratching puzzles and a seemingly never-ending overworld – all done on a humble 16-bit console. A true classic.
SNES Mini stock alert! UK buyers will have another chance to pre-order the imminent SNES Mini tonight, from 8pm. We've seen stock refreshes since the original batch sell out in minutes over the last few months, and we expect tonight to be no different.
UK retailer John Lewis is saying stock will be available online tonight from 8pm, priced at £79.99, with options for free home delivery or store pick-up on launch day, September 29.
Eagle-eyed deal-hunters among you will notice that the price is £10 more than many of the original SNES Mini pre-orders. From what we've heard, though, it looks like most retailers will be going with £79.99 as the default RRP now. While that's annoying, it's still cheaper than the current £120-plus prices on eBay, and John Lewis at least provides a two-year guarantee on the SNES Mini.
If you're ready to buy tonight, there are a few preparations you can make to beat the rush – and there will be a rush, believe us. First up, sign in to your John Lewis account if you have one, or create an account, ahead of time and get as much of your information as possible entered into the system – that way you won't have to go through as many stages during checkout.
We're used to seeing retailer pages fall over when they get a surge of traffic on one item, so the fewer page loads you have to go through the better. We'd also advise getting online a bit before 8pm, just in case John Lewis jumps the gun on the starting time.
Nintendo has said more stock will be available soon, but given the omnishambles experience with international stock in recent times for the NES Mini, Switch and SNES Mini, we'd grab any deal you can if you want one at all. Good luck!
As a gamer, there are always upcoming new releases or next-gen consoles to look forward to. However, as game consoles have become more advanced, their prices have increased significantly making the question of which console to buy all that more difficult for consumers.
Selling your old consoles and games is an easy way to bring down the cost of that new PS4 Pro or the upcoming Xbox One X. Traditionally gamers have returned to popular retailers to sell off their gear, such as Gamestop or EB Games, where they receive just a fraction of what they originally paid. Luckily though Decluttr makes it fast and easy to receive the most for your consoles and games, plus it’s totally free.
Better than a trade-in at your localgamestore
Taking a trip to Gamestop to trade in your old consoles and games always seems like a good idea at first. But once everything you brought in is added up, you often reconsider selling your items in the first place. Decluttr, on the other hand, pays 77 per cent more than Gamestop and saves you a trip to the mall or shopping center.
Using the company’s mobile app or website, you can also quickly see how much a game is worth by scanning the barcode using your smartphone. For consoles, all you need to do is search for your item, describe its condition and Decluttr will give you an instant quote. The company also offers a price promise guarantee and will pay the initial offer price for your game consoles or return them for free!
How yougetpaid
Once you’ve got a price for all of your games and consoles with Decluttr, all you have to do is print out the free shipping label and send them in. There is also no need to worry about them getting damaged in the mail as free insured shipping is included with every box you send in.
Decluttr pays for your items the day after your items arrive with payments distributed to users via check, direct deposit or even PayPal. This way you will have the necessary money for the latest console or games quickly and easily.
Recycle your game collection today
Getting rid of your vast game collection can be a daunting task especially when you feel like they’re being undervalued. Decluttr pays more than anyone else with rates 25 per cent higher than market prices. The service also takes the embarrassment and humiliation out of a trip to Gamestop while making the entire process far simpler than going through an online auction site like eBay. Decluttr even charges no auction or seller fees making it simple and painless to sell your game consoles and games online for the best price with the least amount of hassle.
Why let your old games take up valuable space in your living room setup when you could sell them and begin making money towards your new console on Decluttr today?
