Deal News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

I’m sure we don’t have to tell you, but video games can be expensive. It’s tough being able to pick up each and every new release. That’s especially true now when the standard for a new AAA game in the US will set you back $69.99. So, if you’re trying to save a buck or two, then there might be some games you left on the back burner to drop in price. Fortunately, there are sales going on all the time, one of which we’re covering at the PlayStation Store.

Who doesn’t love a good deal? We know video games are expensive; it’s not a cheap hobby to get into. The entertainment value sometimes comes at a pretty penny, especially if you’re after a new game. So, if that’s the case for you, it might be time to look into deciding what games are truly worth your time and investment. After all, you’re paying a whopping $69.99 for a brand-new AAA video game on the latest-generation console platforms in the US. Fortunately, there are some notable deals to make note of, including this promo being offered on the PlayStation Store.

We don’t have to tell you this, but video games can be expensive. It’s not cheap to pick up the latest releases, and with this latest generation of console platforms, we saw a price hike. New AAA titles will cost you $69.99 here in the States. So, knowing what games to set aside on the back burner and which to purchase on day one is pretty crucial. Fortunately, sales are going on regularly to save you a bit of money, including one unveiled today by PlayStation.

Following a recent update, a new weapon bug is ruining matches in The Finals and Embark Studios has acknowledged the issue and provided some insight into plans for dealing with it. This week, The Finals received update 1.5, which was a big step for improving a lot of aspects of the popular online shooter. One of the bigger additions through this update was the first limited time game mode called Solo Bank It, which tweaked the rules by pitting 12 players against one another to see who could acquire and bank 40,000 in cash. Ditching the team strategy, each player in this mode is fighting individually for glory.

By Quentyn Kennemer, a writer who helps The Verge's readers save money by surfacing the best tech deals and presenting the latest product recommendations from our experts. He has covered tech and gaming for all of his 15-plus-year career for publications like Forbes, Business Insider, and more.

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

Major actors’ union SAG-AFTRA have raised hackles among a number of voice game performers after striking a deal with a company that wants to create AI replicas of actors’ voices for use in games, among other things. While the union claim that their agreement with Replica will allow for a “fair” and “ethical” approach to creating AI voices, it’s clear that a number of actors with credits in games from Baldur’s Gate 3, Mortal Kombat and Starfield to Apex Legends, World of Warcraft and Genshin Impact don’t agree.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an American labor union which represents thousands of media professionals, has announced what it describes as a “groundbreaking AI voice agreement” with artificial intelligence voice technology company Replica Studios. 

The SAG-AFTRA has announced a new deal for AI voice acting, that seems to have hit a problem: its members didn’t know about it.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) has signed a deal with Replica Studios that would let its membership create a digital replica of their voice.

Several video game performers have been left "disappointed" with US union SAG-AFTRA's new agreement with an AI voice technology company.

The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG AFTRA) has announced a new deal which it claims will protect actors from unauthorized AI replications of their voices.

It's mad to think that we're already two weeks on from Christmas, isn't it? The decorations have now come down (take them down you lazy so-and-so), and normalcy once again reigns supreme. Luckily for us, and you, though, normalcy in January means deals, and tonnes of them.

If you’re the proud owner of a 4K Blu-ray player, like the Panasonic UB420-K, or even something like a PS5 or a Xbox Series X, here’s a deal that may interest you. Amazon has dozens of 4K Blu-ray discs eligible for its 3 for $33 promotion, which lasts through Jan. 15. Simply add three to your cart, and their respective prices will adjust to cost $11 each.

Another year, another faintly absurd Pathfinder deal. This time, the D&D rival is back with another massive, three-figure discount.

Microsoft president Brad Smith has seemingly walked back on comments criticising the UK over the handling of its Activision Blizzard deal.

Microsoft president Brad Smith has changed his tone somewhat towards UK regulatory body the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), admitting its initial plan to block the company's Activision Blizzard buyout was «tough and fair».

While Microsoft has now officially acquired Activision Blizzard, the company had to restructure the deal to win the approval of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority regulator, which originally found the deal concerning for a variety of reasons. Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, wasn't happy about the original verdict, meeting it with some harsh words, but it seems like things have changed since, now that the deal has finally gone through.

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

iPhone 15 price cut: Have you been planning to buy an Apple iPhone 15, but waiting for a substantial discount to be announced? Well, it is happening now! Apple's cutting-edge iPhone 15 was launched just a few months ago at the Wonderlust event on September 12 and the great news is that its price has dropped substantially on Amazon. So, if you are an iPhone fan waiting for an opportunity like this to come since launch, you should have a very close look at the deal. Check here to know more about this exciting iPhone 15 price cut offer.

The general reception surrounding Diablo 4 has had many ups and downs in its first six months since release. Currently, Diablo 4 is in a far better state than it was earlier this year. Evidently, the developers learned some valuable insights on carefully tuning this massive action RPG to meet community expectations.  In an interview with the Electronic Playground Network, Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson took some time to reflect on the first six months of Diablo 4. He also talked about the rough patches -- both the actual patches and the resulting community backlash -- and stated that upcoming updates would instead go for more thoughtful changes. According to Fergusson, a big lesson that Blizzard learned is that sometimes it's OK for things to "feel" broken to keep the fun.

Alphabet Inc.'s agreement to pay $700 million to consumers and states and open the Google Play Store to competition will leave intact the heavily-criticized commissions the technology giant charges mobile app developers.

Around this time last year it was announced that Games Workshop had reached an "agreement in principle" with Amazon to bring the Warhammer 40,000 universe to the screen. That full agreement has now been finalised, Games Workshop say, meaning "the next stage can begin."

2022 did not end particularly well for our favorite hunk of burning PC gamer Henry Cavill. After leaving The Witcher to return to the big screen as DC's top-dog superhero, the Superman project fell apart, his old job was gone, and he was very suddenly looking for something to do. But there was one bright spot: After all of the above had unfolded, Games Workshop confirmed that Cavill was set to head up, and star in, a Warhammer 40,000 «cinematic universe.»

There will be a lengthy gap of X-Men games on Sony’s rival platforms. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the recent ransomware attack. Well, it looks like Sony didn’t pay up, and the group has since moved on to deliver a series of leaked documents from Insomniac Games. The developer behind Marvel’s Spider-Man and upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine has been finding their upcoming projects’ roadmaps, leaked plot details, and more. Among the recent set of leaked documents, a signed deal between Marvel and Sony shows that X-Men has become an exclusive IP for Sony. 

Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard had to go through a nearly two-year long approval period before it was officially finalized in October, and throughout the process, Sony made it abundantly clear that it did not want the deal to go through. It’s no surprise, then, that newly leaked internal Sony documents have revealed (via Reddit) the extent of the company’s concern over the acquisition.

Adobe Inc. walked away from its $20 billion acquisition of startup Figma Inc. after clashing with regulators in Europe and the UK. Adobe will pay Figma a $1 billion termination fee, the companies said in a statement on Monday. They saw “no clear path” to getting regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.  

Armored Core 6 just joined this year's surprising avalanche of quality-of-life updates and out-of-the-blue patches: like Baldur's Gate 3 adding a whole new epilogue and difficulty mode, or Cyberpunk 2077 finally making good on its promises of a working public transport system. 

On Friday, December 8, Europe reached a provisional deal on landmark European Union (EU) rules governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The political agreement is seen as a landmark moment for the EU and now, it is expected that the rest of the process to enact the AI Act. As per reports, the sticking points where the bloc failed to find consensus were governments' use of AI in biometric surveillance and how to regulate AI systems such as ChatGPT. Now that the agreement is in place, you should know the key elements of the AI Act and how it may shape the future of this emerging technology.

As ZeniMax Workers United and the Communication Workers of America continue to negotiate their first contract with Microsoft subsidiary ZeniMax, the groups today released an update on talks, saying they have reached a tentative agreement with the company that would impact how it can incorporate artificial intelligence into its business.

NVIDIA's Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has once again teased a potential partnership with Intel Foundry Services for next-gen chip production.

Microsoft is converting workers from ZeniMax Workers United from contract work into unionized employees. This affects 23 out of 77 workers in the group and means both access to benefits and a pay raise.

Save almost $10 on this CRPG set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The Federal Trade Commission has made its appeal to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard – despite the $68.7 billion deal closing in October.

Gortash is, first and foremost, a politician in Baldur’s Gate 3. When you find him at the Wyrm’s Rock Fortress, he has a deal for you: work with him to acquire the Netherstone from Orin and control the Elderbrain together.

I've potentially written up hundreds of gaming laptop deals in my time, but this one still shocked me. The fact that this RTX 4060 Gigabyte G5 is still discounted a week after this year's November mega sales is even more impressive. It's the cheapest price I've seen on a machine of this scale, it's $50 less than it was this time last week, and it's still in stock at Best Buy. 

Unity Technologies is laying off 265 people — 3.8% of its 7,000 employees — as it undergoes a “company reset,” according to Reuters. All 256 laid off workers were part of Unity’s Wētā Digital division; several Wētā FX tools and 275 employees were acquired by Unity in 2021 in a $1.6 billion deal.

Sony Interactive Entertainment and NCSoft have announced a new “strategic partnership” that will cover “various global business fields, including mobile”. 

Spending online on Cyber Monday is set to exceed $12 billion, a record, as bargain hunters snap up deals on items including Barbie dolls, Lego sets, headphones and smart watches, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe Digital Insights.

Cyber Monday may be drawing to a close, but it's not too late to check out this Meta Quest 2 deal if you want to join the world of virtual reality gaming. Traditionally this is a particularly expensive area of tech to get into, with some headsets commanding eye-watering price tags that can extend to four figures in some cases, but the Quest 2 definitely doesn't fall into that category.

The Cyber Monday beacons have been lit, so it's my duty to inform you that right now, you can get one of my favorite pieces of Lord of the Rings merch for $50 cheaper.

Steam Deck owners looking to get the most functionality out of their portable PC should consider the Deckmate, an accessory that lets users attach things like a kickstand, a wall mount, and an external battery for longer gaming sessions. Deckmate’s Entire System bundle includes the Deckmate Grip, a kickstand, wall mount, two adhesive pucks, a VESA mount (with all the necessary screws), and a universal adapter. It’s currently on sale for Cyber Monday.

It’s Cyber Monday, which means Amazon is offering a host of deals. One bargain in particular is perfect for anyone with even a passing interest in the Black Library, the collection of fiction set in the worlds of Warhammer. This includes the classic Warhammer fantasy setting, tales in the new Age of Sigmar, and a whole smorgasbord of books set in the sci-fi future of Warhammer 40K.

As Meta rolls out its new, improved Quest 3 VR headset, we’ve started seeing stock-clearing offers on its predecessor, the Quest 2 — and this Cyber Monday heralds the arrival of the best deal yet on Quest 2.

Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 6XX Headphones | 40mm drivers |  10-41,000Hz | Open-back | Wired | $219 $179 at Drop (save $40)A hot collab between Drop and Sennheiser, the HD 6XX headphones are essentially a variant of Sennheiser's ever-popular HD 650s in misty midnight blue. They have the same sound profile as the HD 650s—a nice, crisp and clear response on the mids and highs—meaning you're set for some seriously nice audio for a seriously decent price.

Looking for an awesome Cyber Monday deal on the new iPhone 15 series? Well, Walmart has something special for you! Even though Cyber Monday sale is still not here, you can score a fantastic offer right now. Walmart is offering the iPhone 15 on a discounted monthly plan for just $23.03. And here's the kicker - they will give you a $300 eGift card to use in-store. This amazing gift card deal is valid for AT&T and Verizon iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro purchases made between November 22 and December 3.

Amazon’s Black Friday 2023 deals might be over, but Cyber Monday is just around the corner, which only means that you get another opportunity to take advantage of some incredible savings that you could not pounce on before. On this occasion, the ASUS TUF A15 gaming is available for $1,189.99 as part of early Cyber Monday 2023, and what makes it special is that it is armed with an RTX 4070 and paired with a powerful yet extremely efficient Ryzen 9 CPU.

RTX 4080 gaming laptops entered the marketplace at around the $2,399.99 mark, reaching all the way up to $2,699.99 on some occasions. Eluktronics’ Prometheus XVI G2 was not easy on the wallet either, reaching an eye-watering price of $2,499.99 on Amazon. Fortunately, these Black Friday 2023 deals are a godsend because now, the exact same machine with its dedicated external liquid cooler is available for $1,949.99. Granted, that is still a decent chunk of change, but compared to what these models were available for before, we have to say that these are insanely attractive offers.

SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro + GameDAC | 40mm drivers | 10–40,000Hz | Closed-back | Wireless | $349.99 $297.49 at Amazon (save $52.50)SteelSeries have a reputation for making fantastic gaming headsets, and the Arctis Nova Pro is where the company brings together all it's knowhow. From incredible comfort, to smashing sound quality and isolation, and hot swappable batteries that charge within the DAC cross battery dock. It's multi-connection, so you can quickly switch between Bluetooth, or 2.4 Wi-Fi on Xbox and PC.

Board games are fun; organizing board games is not. Smonex has created laser-cut box organizers to maximize time spent playing games and minimize everything else. Their designs are especially helpful for games with gobs of little pieces that can easily be lost or damaged.

Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 | 12GB GDDR6X | 5,888 shaders | 2,475MHz boost | $549.99$514.99 at Newegg (save $30)Ignore the inflated pre-discount selling price, the fact that this is an RTX 4070 retailing for below the standard Nvidia MSRP is the thing to really pay attention to. This is nearly RTX 3080 performance but with all those nice RTX 40 features. Also, it's covered in lots of shiny RGB, which will be a plus for some of you and not for others, we're sure.

The problem with great Black Friday iPad deals is that they never hang around for all that long. Case in point, earlier this week Amazon was offering up a 64GB iPad for just $229 – a fantastic deal which quickly sold out. And while I'm yet to spot anything quite that good since, there is a similar deal over at Walmart offering up a 64GB iPad for $249.99 (was $329.99). 

You won’t find Baldur’s Gate 3 on sale this Black Friday. And yet, we believe it’s still one of the best video game deals this holiday season. Across the Polygon team, we’ve collectively put hundreds — if not thousands — of hours into the CRPG. Considering the current bleak forecast for big video game releases in 2024, we expect to invest a few thousand more.

I hate to say this, but PS5 controller deals have been completely weak sauce this Black Friday. 

By Alienware's standards, the Alienware m16 with RTX 4090 graphics for $2,599 in their Black Friday sale is a bit of a steal (note that you'll need to hit the «RTX 4090» option to upgrade from the base configuration that's linked here). After all, we're used to seeing their high-end models go for $3,000 to $4,000 or more.

Want to try Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but would rather not pay full price for a game that’s gotten a mix of great and brutal reviews? GameStop’s “buy two used games, get one free” Black Friday deal is the perfect solution. Grab two bonafide gems like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Spider-Man 2, and then snag the latest Call of Duty for free.

Board games are fun; organizing board games is not. Smonex has created laser-cut box organizers to maximize time spent playing games and minimize everything else. Their designs are especially helpful for games with gobs of little pieces that can easily be lost or damaged.

Alienware Aurora R16 | Core i7 13700F | RTX 4070 Ti | 16GB DDR5-5600 | 1TB SSD | $1,949.99$1,749.99 at Dell (save $200) You can score an RTX 4070 Ti PC for less than this, though usually with an older CPU than the Core i7 13700F here. This Alienware delivers a rather modern package, with a Raptor Lake processor (13th Gen, not 14th Gen, but that's fine), a big enough boot drive at 1TB, and a 1000W PSU. It's also liquid cooled and comes with two sticks of DDR5 memory.

I’ve been keeping my eye firmly on Black Friday gaming PC deals all week, and I’ve just spotted an Alienware rig that’s well worth considering. While you’ll find plenty of Aurora R15 builds with RTX 4060 and RTX 4080 graphics cards within, Amazon has got a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti build that’s down to its lowest price. If you’re itching to get your hands on a machine that can provide 1440p max settings in the latest games and dabble with 4K, this might be the system for you.

Black Friday gaming laptop deals are taking the shelves by storm today, but not all offers are built equally. As is the way every year, I was fully expecting the best and brightest of this year's haul to be run off the shelves within just a few hours - but I'm surprised this RTX 4080 Lenovo Legion hasn't been snapped up. 

The Holiday season has officially kicked off, which, of course, means retailers are slapping enticing deals on products across a wide range of categories. If you’ve been waiting to nab a PS5 at a reduced price, a new deal being offered by Target will let you do just that.

Here it is, folks: Black Friday has arrived with full force. For PS5 owners, there's a standout deal on Amazon for the latest entry in the Final Fantasy, priced at just $35—a remarkable 50% discount. This presents an excellent opportunity to grab a fantastic game at an impressive price, especially considering it's less than a year old. If you haven't experienced this game yet, time is of the essence to seize this offer. Our initial review in June bestowed it with an amazing 9/10, a verdict we still stand by. This 16th installment in the franchise definitely deviates somewhat from the series' typical expectations, but it's unquestionably a game worth playing.

I've just stumbled across a Black Friday curved monitor deal that's so good, I genuinely wasn't sure if I was still in bed dreaming about fictional offers. I mean, I previously thought Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy had struck gold with their Samsung Odyssey Ark deals, but B&H Photo just knocked the monstrous monitor down to a price that's impossible to ignore. It's also a true Black Friday deal, as a timer suggests it's due to vanish.

US retailer Target has cut the PlayStation 5 price to $350 for Black Friday.

The new PlayStation 5 Slim console has received a £20 pre-launch discount at UK retailer Currys for Black Friday.

Are you looking to get a PlayStation 5 in the US? There’s a huge deal coming up right now that you simply cannot miss.

Razer Seiren Mini | Condenser mic | USB | 48kHz sampling rate | 20-20kHz frequency response | $49.99 $34.99 at Amazon (save $15)Our favorite budget microphone for gaming and streaming is simple as they come but offers great sound. It would be nicer if it used a standard USB cable rather than Razer's proprietary offering and the lack of a mute button is a bit disappointing, but at this price, these are minor issues.

Get some highly detailed collectibles, the game, and every upcoming character in Street Fighter 6's first year in this Black Friday special.

A Genshin Impact edition 8BitDo Ultimate wireless controller has just shot to the top of Amazon's Movers & Shakers chart, beating out plenty of actual Black Friday deals in the process. The gamepad is up for pre-order right now, launching on December 18, but fans of the game have been going mad for the unique blue and white colorway and matching charging dock. 

The most recent Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, didn't get the best reviews. In fact, our own Modern Warfare reviews ranged from downright "Bad" for the campaign to "OK" for the multiplayer. Regardless of how people feel about it, Call of Duty is a massive game every year and usually becomes the best-selling game of the entire year in the first month it releases.

Tabletop gaming from an older era comes alive with this stacked collection of old-school games at Walmart for Black Friday.

The Hori Split Pad Pro is pretty much permanently fixed to my Nintendo Switch OLED these days, and with Best Buy dropping a $10 discount on the ergonomically minded Joy-Con alternative it's an absolute steal this week. 

We're well into the Black Friday deals now, and as a result we're seeing discounts flood in on just about everything from CPUs to SSDs. But when it comes to the latter, there's a recommendation that keeps hitting our feeds that I somewhat disagree with, and it's for the Samsung 990 Pro Series 2TB.

Acer Nitro XV322QK | 32-inch | 4k | 144Hz | IPS | USB-C 65W PD | $699.99$349.99 at Newegg (save $350) This is nothing less than the cheapest gaming monitor we've ever seen that hits that critical combo of 32 inches, 4K, 144Hz and IPS panel tech. Heck, it even throws in USB-C connectivity with 65W of power delivery. What an absolute steal of a deal. Use Promo Code: BFCY2Z739 at NewEgg or hit the checkbox on Amazon for the right price.

The Black Friday sale is almost here and buyers can avail massive discounts on a wide range of products such as smartphones, laptops, electronics, home appliances, and more. Although the actual sale takes place on November 24, some of the offers have already gone live, allowing buyers to grab them before the stocks run out. One amazing Black Friday deal is live on the Apple MacBook Air M2. As part of the Black Friday offer, you can grab the MacBook Air at a hefty discount! Check out the details of this deal below.

I love power, and having a big battery means I have all the power I need to play all day. As a phone reviewer with a heap of mobile fun, that means a lot of power, and the Anker Prime power bank delivers power for days. Today's Black Friday deals include the first price drop we’ve seen on the Anker Prime 20K Power Bank since it launched a few months ago, dropping the price by $40 to only $89.99. That’s a stellar offer for a battery that can charge everything from your gaming gear to your smartphone at top speed. • Shop Amazon's full Black Friday sale

Yeyian Yumi | Core i5 12400F | Nvidia RTX 4060 | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 1TB SSD | $1,199.99$829.99 at Newegg (save $370)This is a good deal for a mid-tier gaming PC, especially when many rigs around this price are delivering you an RTX 3060 or RTX 3060 Ti. The Core i5 is still a solid CPU today, and RTX 4060 is probably the mainstream GPU of Nvidia's current generation of cards you'd expect in a budget build, comfortably beating both those RTX 30-series mainstays, and with the added panacea of DLSS 3.5 and Frame Generation. You also get a full 16GB RAM and a full 1TB NVMe SSD.

Gigabyte G5 | Core i7 12650H | RTX 4060 | 16GB DDR5-4800 | 512GB SSD | 15.6-inch | 1080p | 144Hz | $1,099.99 $799.99 at Best Buy (save $300)This is a lot of laptop for not very much money. To start with, you're getting a 10-core, 16-thread CPU that will easily cope with pretty much any game you throw at it. There's an RTX 4060 Mobile graphics chip too, that supports DLSS upscaling and frame generation. The storage is a bit disappointing, and you'll probably want to upgrade it at some point with a large SSD. For portable gaming and school work, though, this Gigabyte G5 laptop will keep you and your wallet happy.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has claimed Google offered him what «seemed like a crooked arrangement» in order to persuade the company to release Fortnite in the Google Play Store rather than through its own website.

The Nintendo Switch OLED hasn't been quite as stubborn as the standard edition was when it comes to discounts. However, it took this week's Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals to fully knock the value of the console down to unprecedented levels. Yes, we've seen the odd $10 discount in the US or £289 sale price in the UK, but 2023's holiday offers are taking things to a whole other level right now - and I'm not talking about the Super Smash Bros. bundle.