There’s been a lot of news this week on sales and prices, and Pricefall has returned to help you digest the overload of deals that will both help and hurt your wallet at the same time. In one of the more interesting developments this week, there was a huge price error at Walmart’s online store that caused a mass amount of items to be marked down to incredibly unrealistic levels (and reportedly some items to be dramatically marked up). A large portion of these mark-downed items included video games, and those listings affected appeared to be listed for about $18 regardless of platform or how recently they were released. We reported when this happened to the listing for Shin Megami Tensei IV. Overall, however, the error seemed to infect the product selection randomly, with high-quality monitors for $9, a $579 projector for $8, and kayaks for $11.
So naturally, you would assume that Walmart would never let this fly, they’d cancel all the orders, and there’d be no chance to get away with one of these unintentional deals, right? Wrong. If you follow the chaos that ensued after the discovery of the pricing error in this Cheap Ass Gamer post, some consumers were able to strike on the deals by using in-store pick-up with items that were in stock. That said, a vast majority of orders were cancelled, and Walmart went into damage control for the rest of the week.
If you’re in Canada, however, retailers Future Shop and Best Buy Canada are holding an equally enticing sale that is not due to error, but an actual legitimate promotion! You can trade in any game (complete in box) on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PS Vita, or 3DS and get Assassin’s Creed 4, Battlefield 4, or Call of Duty: Ghosts on your choice of the Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii U. (Next-generation platforms and PCs are excluded from the promotion.) Not the best selection for niche gamers, but for a promotion that is essentially a free new game for almost any trade-in, it’s tough to pass up. This promotion excludes some cities and ends Monday, November 11.
Beyond those major incidents, we have the PlayStation 4 launch to look forward to. With almost all the online options out of stock, retail stores are using promotions to try and draw customers into their physical stores and away from competitors. For the online consumer, we still have plenty of other deals around the web. Plus, we’ll be price-tracking Stadium Events for the NES, one of the rarest and most valuable games of all time, as a copy of the game was discovered this week.
Active Sales
The Wonderful 101
$49.99 – 17% off at Amazon
PixelJunk Shooter
$6.74 – $2.25 off the pre-order at GOG.com (PC)
Tearaway
$36.99 – $3 off the pre-order with free shipping at Newegg with promo code EMCWWXM88
Shin Megami Tensei IV (Limited Edition Box Set)
$44.99 – $15 off at Play-Asia
This game and all DLC is also on sale on the 3DS eShop
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
$24.61 – 37% off at Amazon
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
$23.99 – $8 off at Play-Asia
Dementium II HD
$9.74 – 35% off at GreenManGaming
Kid Icarus: Uprising
$29.99 – $12 off at Play-Asia
Time and Eternity
$23.98 – 19% off at Amazon
Resident Evil: Revelations
$22.79 – 43% off at Amazon (PS3)
Zone of the Enders HD Collection
$10.99 – 67% off at Amazon (PS3)
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team
$28.36 – 29% off at Amazon
Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons
$11.24 – 25% off on Steam
Catherine
$18.71 – 38% off at Amazon
Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collection Set
$49.99 at Capcom’s online store
Dust: An Elysian Tail
$7.49 – $7.50 off at GOG.com
Left 4 Dead 2
$4.99 – 75% off at GameFly
Trackmania United Forever Star Edition
$14.99 – 50% off on Steam
Hotline Miami
$2.49 – 75% off on Steam
Portal 2
$4.99 – 75% off on Steam
Sonic Generations
$14.96 – 70% off at Amazon (PS3)
GameFly is holding a promotion this weekend for PC digital games published by Sega at 75% off, including Sonic Generations, among others.
Humble Bundle is currently hosting the Humble WB Games Bundle. You pay what you want for Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, F.E.A.R. 3, and Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Pay more than the average (currently $4.64), and you get Scribblenauts Unlimited and Batman: Arkham City GOTY. This bundle is supporting the We Can Be Heroes charity. All games are available through Steam only.
The Humble Weekly Sale is being supported by Daedalic Entertainment. Pay what you want for Edna & Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes, A New Beginning – Final Cut, The Whispered World, The Chronicles of Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet, and The Chronicles of Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pay $6 or more to also get Desponia, Journey of a Roach, and The Dark Eye – Chains of Satinav. This bundle supports the American Red Cross and Child’s Play Charity.
Not to be outdone in altruism, GOG is holding a charity promotion, as well. This isn’t quite pay-what-you-want, but you can pick any 3 games for $5. It’s a 3-game minimum, and any games you buy in addition are $1.67 each ($5 for each batch of 3 games). The selection of games include FTL: Faster Than Light, Darwinia, and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, among others. Charities being supported are WWF, Worldbuilders, and Gaming for Good. GOG is also holding their weekly sale, the Activate Autumn sale, featuring retro games from Activision, including Zork and King’s Quest.
PlayStation 4 Launch
UPDATE: Amazon
The anticipated launch of the PlayStation 4 is finally happening this week, and as expected, it’s very difficult to pre-order the brand-new console online. We’ve reported this week that NCIX is one of the few places you can still pre-order online. Retail stores are now betting on promotions to motivate consumers to come into their stores for this event and spend all their money.
First up is Best Buy, which is offering $25 store credit with the purchase of any three select games. Not bad, but Toys “R” Us does one better by offering a $50 gift card with the purchase of any three PS3 or PS4 games or accessories $59.99 and up, or a $15 gift card with the purchase of two games. Target laughs these offers off with their own competitive promotion: buy 2 games, and get one free. Target is also holding a buy 2, get 1 free deal online, although the game selection is not clear.
Keep in mind these stores will likely be very busy with limited supply, and these ads may not apply everywhere. If you’re in need of the new console and don’t have an order online, this may be your best bet while saving some money.
Reported Earlier
PS4 and Xbox One Pre-Order Guide
The Humble WB Games Bundle
Shin Megami Tensei IV and Dragon’s Crown
Atlus PSN Sale
Price Tracking
Stadium Events
This game is said to be the rarest licensed NES game in history. In 1987, the game was available in limited stores for the holiday season, designed to be used with Bandai’s Family Fun Fitness mat. In the following year, Nintendo purchased the rights to the mat and subsequently discontinued this game to make way for the Power Pad and games designed for the new mat. That leaves a very narrow window for this game to be sold, with very few legitimate copies of the game on the market.
However, Wired has reported an NES game collector has stumbled upon a copy of the game after purchasing a box full of Nintendo games for $50. The discovery reportedly happened during a routine video recording he was making for YouTube. There was a lot of debate over the authenticity of the find, especially considering the collector originally posted the discovery with a faked reaction that masked his knowledge of the game’s rarity before uploading his “real” reaction later. However, he has since uploaded a video that went to great lengths to prove that the game was very real, still works, and that no video editing was done to deceive anyone, even going so far as opening up the game and showing the game board itself.
This phenomenon isn’t that unusual. In fact, it was reported earlier this year that someone found Stadium Events for only $8 at a thrift shop. Since the game is very likely to be real, how much money can the YouTube personality expect to gain should he decide to sell?
There’s very little comparison or precedent in the video game grey market that is quite on the same level as Stadium Events. A loose copy of the game (without packaging) averaged between $2,000 and $3,000 in 2012 in about six different auctions on eBay. This year, however, there have been fewer transactions, with two sales going for $4,050.00 and an unconfirmed listing for $7,999.99. This doesn’t even include the few copies that still maintain the packaging, let alone factory-sealed copies. With packaging, the game has reportedly sold as high as $55,000 earlier this year in March.
In the coming weeks on Pricefall, we’ll be looking to sales that continue to emerge from the console launches and start to prepare for Black Friday (November 29). Have any rare games or merchandise yourself? Find sales we missed? What’s the most you’ve sold a game for? Let us know in the comments.
SOURCES
Gamesniped
PriceCharting.com
Cheap Ass Gamer
GamerDeals
Steam
Amazon.com
eBay.com
GameStop
