Christmas 2011, the best time for gamers?

Fa la la la la, la la la laaaa.

We all know that Christmas is coming up in just over a week. This is one of the best times for anyone for many reasons... but mainly for getting presents. For any avid gamer, it is around this time that games start becoming cheap, usually with huge discounts off consoles and games going relatively cheap as well in most cases. But 2011 happens to be a great year for a gamer, particularly with the amount of games that have been released. With the likes of Skyrim, Skyward Sword, Modern Warfare 3 and many more, our wallets are bound to be empty. While many people argue that this year may be hugely devastating on our cash amount, there are some ways to make sure that you can get your games while retaining as much of your money as possible.

Well firstly, the obvious one for most is looking online. Many online retailers such has Amazon or Play do great deals at around this time. I recently saw Modern Warfare 3 for about £35 about 2 days ago. Considering that it is around £50 in stores, this was a huge bargain. However, a lot of these offers are subject to availability, so making sure that you get it before it runs out of stock can be a bit of a pain; and when it does run out of stock, the next best price may be amazingly high. Skyward Sword, for example, was £47 when it was preordered from Amazon and remained that for the following 3 days. But after stocks ran out, the next best price online was £80. Even Play and Zavvi were doing insane prices once their stock ran out. Not only that, but at times it may take forever to deliver something and for stocks to return. Even though the retailers say that they do next day delivery, it could take days or weeks for it to be delivered... not the best of things when wanting a game so close to Christmas. So online may not be the best of options, but if you get it while you can, then it can be absolutely amazing.

The next is looking in stores. Usually, it is more expensive than online, but in some cases, the deals that they provide may actually be better than online. Looking for console bundles in stores proves relatively useful as at this time, stores like GameStop and Gamestation have amazing deals going around on bundles. At times, there are also game deals as well, such as buy 2 games and get the third free, equating to paying less than online in most cases. Moreover, the best thing about shopping in stores is that you can get it straight away. You don’t have to wait days to get your game or console, you can buy it, get it wrapped up and put it under the Christmas tree in under an hour. Also, stores do great deals for preorders. With Final Fantasy 13-2 and the PS Vita coming next year, some stores have even started to do Christmas preorder deals for them, saving you some money or getting the a free game with it. Looks like your Christmas tree will have a present saying ‘From me to me’... “aww, you shouldn’t have”.

Next is getting preowned games. Now, this is a turn off for some people due to the fact that someone else has owned the game and it may have scratches on the disk or soothe case being broken. However, stores usually check this stuff before hand, making sure that it is to the upmost quality. Having worked in a gaming shop for a period of time, I can vouch to say that it is true that it is still the same game, only cheaper. Not only that, but for these games, there are deals like ‘buy one get the other half price’ or ‘2 games for £20’. This can help a lot for getting the games that you wanted ages ago but never ha the money then. For newly released games, you may have to wait a while for it to be preowned, but if you do find it in stores, then it should be at least 10% off RRP price.

Renting, a good way to get games for a set or unlimited time, making it easier for you to get the games, platy them, return them and get another straight away. Love Film and Blockbusters are great for this, with the former being the cheaper option. This is a cheap and effective way of getting games, but the problem is that you never own the game, and you have to return one game to get another in most cases, meaning you cant play one game and then another once you get bored of it, and then go back to it an hour later if you wanted to. At times, this can be good given the current economic crises, but remember, subscription fees may be high and it’s a pain to wait for a game to come to your house, or to go to the store to rent it after each time you have completed it.

Or you could just get a job... or mooch off your parents.