GameStop’s Black Friday deals on Xbox One and PS4 start Sunday, Nov. 18

GameStop’s Black Friday sale has been revealed, and… it’s pretty underwhelming. The game retailer is effectively offering the same baseline $199 PS4 and Xbox One deals as every other big store under the sun. But GameStop’s timing is significant: its sale prices start Sunday, Nov. 18. That’s three days before Walmart (Wednesday, Nov. 21) and four days before most other retailers.

Highlights are below. Note that:

• Sale prices don’t start until Sunday, Nov. 18 and are in effect until Monday, Nov. 26 while supplies last.
• CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured below.

PlayStation 4 

As shown above, GameStop is offering the same (great) 1TB PS4 + Spider-Man bundle for $199 that’s widely available elsewhere. But since it’s at GameStop first — sure, might as well take the plunge.

GameStop is also offering the PSVR bundle for $249 ($100 off): the PSVR helmet, two Move controllers, the PlayStation camera, Creed: Rise to Glory and Superhot. Again, this one is widely available nearly everywhere, but GameStop will have it first. 

See it at GameStop

As for titles, it’s a pretty nice selection of PS4 games at good prices — but you might want to price check these versus the frequent digital sales at Sony’s online store. Some notable recommendations (all PS4 exclusives):

Xbox One

The Xbox story is much the same. GameStop is offering the same 1TB Xbox One Minecraft bundle for $199 that is available at nearly every other retailer. But you’ll find it here first.

As for the Xbox One games that GameStop is advertising — they seem far less appealing than their PS4 equivalents, for this reason: All 4 titles highlighted in the GameStop circular — PUBG, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4 and State of Decay 2 — are available on the “all you can eat” Xbox Game Pass service, which Microsoft is offering to new users for $1 a month (to start) between now and the end of the year. If you have a fast internet connection, that’s the way to go. At least start with that to sample them, and then pay full price if you really fall in love with a particular title.

Meanwhile, avoid the $70 off Xbox promo for other Xbox One consoles. You can get the step-up Xbox One X for $100 off at plenty of other retailers later in the week.

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’30 percent off whatever you can stuff into the $5 bag’

Weirdly, the Nintendo Switch is completely absent from the GameStop ad, so we want to make sure you know you can buy the Switch with Mario Kart 8 bundled in at no extra charge at many other retailers later in the Black Friday week.

Instead, GameStop is offering an oddball promo: You can get 30 percent off whatever “stuff” (with plenty of caveats) you can cram into a tote bag. Oh, and you need to spend $5 on the bag, to boot. Personally, it doesn’t look particularly fun to me — but you do you.

Black Friday 2018 deals in each category

Black Friday 2018 deals for specific devices

Black Friday 2018 deals by store

Black Friday 2018: CNET’s complete coverage