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The Prime Day gaming deals we love from Amazon’s latest sale

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The Prime Day gaming deals we love from Amazon’s latest sale

The latest Prime Day sale is here, and as expected, Amazon is advertising an array of deals on video games and gaming accessories. Also as expected, most of those offers aren’t all that good. So allow us to do the research for you. To help those looking to upgrade their battle station or extend their backlog, we’ve picked out the best Amazon Prime Day discounts on gaming gear below.

While the selection isn’t as vast as what we’ll see around Black Friday, we’re still seeing lower-than-usual prices on well-reviewed games for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. There’s also a few decent deals on gaming mice, headsets, laptops and other accessories we’ve tested and can recommend.

As a reminder, this year’s Prime Day runs through July 17, and you’ll need to be a Prime member to access most of the discounts. We’ll update this roundup as prices change and new deals of note pop up. And if you have no interest at shopping at Amazon, note that some of these deals may also be available at other retailers.

Square Enix

The action-RPG  is down to $55 for Prime Day. The digital version fell a earlier a couple months ago, but this matches the best price we’ve seen for a physical copy. Since it only came out in February, the game normally retails for $70. This “Amazon Edition” also comes with a PS5 controller skin in the box.

We gave Rebirth a earlier this year, and it’s one of the of 2024 overall. You need to have — and ideally, the — to fully understand its plot, but it’s loaded with things to do, and its combat system remains a rush. You could do much worse if you’re looking for a mammoth RPG you can sink well over a hundred hours into. Just be aware that it is very much the second chapter in a planned trilogy, and we’ll inevitably see deeper discounts as time goes on.

$55 at Amazon

Square Enix

In other Final Fantasy deals, last year’s Final Fantasy XVI is also on sale for $28.49. That its lowest price to date. This is another action-RPG, but it’s altogether more straightforward than Rebirth: You don’t have to come in with any prior knowledge to get into its story, while its hack-and-slash combat should be easy for anyone to pick up. Think of it like a cross between the gameplay of God of War and the tone of Game of Thrones. It can get bogged down in aimless side quests, but its high points are a rush; if you’d like a game where giant demigods melodramatically crash into one another, it should be a good time. You can read our review for more details. Note that this one is eventually getting a PC release.

$28 at Amazon

SEGA

The tactical RPG Unicorn Overlord is down to $35, which is the lowest price we’ve seen for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S editions. The Switch copy is available for the same price, though we’ve seen that version go for $5 less a few times before. 

Engadget’s Sam Rutherford called this game a “must-play for tactics fans” in his review this past March. Its narrative may lean too hard on fantasy RPG tropes, but its battle system should scratch the strategy itch for those who pine for games like Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics or (especially) Ogre Battle. It also looks gorgeous, which makes sense given that this is the studio behind cult favorites 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Dragon’s Crown.

There are a few other decent Prime Day deals for RPG fans, too, including Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for $35, Octopath Traveler II for $30 and the recent remake Persona 3 Reload for $35. Not all of those are all-time lows, but they’re each cheaper than the typical street prices we’ve seen over the last couple of months. Each game has received high marks from reviewers at large.

$35 at Amazon

Sony Interactive Entertainment

A handful of Sony’s first-party PS5 exclusives are discounted as well, with the endearing action game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the haunting roguelike Returnal and the remade action-RPG Demon’s Souls each down to $30.

We’ve seen these deals several times before, and each of the included games has been a few bucks cheaper at some point in the past. But those steeper discounts don’t occur super often, and the games themselves rank among the best on the system. So if you’ve been looking to pad your PS5 backlog, this isn’t the worst time to do so.

$30 at Amazon

BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment

Here’s a decent one for fighting game fans: Tekken 8 is down to $45 for the PS5 and $42 for the Xbox Series X/S. Neither discount is the largest we’ve seen — the digital versions are actually a few bucks cheaper right now on Sony’s and Microsoft’s respective storefronts — but they’re each a bit lower than usual if you’d prefer to own a physical disc. 

This is another one of 2024’s highest-rated games. It may not be quite as accessible for complete beginners as Street Fighter 6, but it’s certainly not impenetrable, and its battles are thrilling once you start plumbing the (extensive) mechanical depths of its 30+ characters. Plus, two of those characters are big silly bears — and honestly, you can’t beat that. If you’ve thinking about getting into a fighting game anyway, this deal should lessen the risk.

$45 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

The Razer Basilisk V3 has dropped back to $40 for Prime Day, matching its lowest price to date. The gaming mouse has normally retailed for $50 over the past year.

We’re working on a big overhaul to our gaming mouse buying guide, but we plan to keep the Basilisk V3 as a top pick for those who want a more ergonomically shaped wired model. Its sturdy frame should be comfortable for most grip types and all but the smallest of hands. It comes with 11 customizable buttons, and its scroll wheel supports a faster free-spinning mode and side-to-side scrolling. It has no issues with tracking accuracy, either. That said, it’s fairly hefty at 100 grams, so it’s not ideal for fast-twitch shooter games. That scroll wheel is on the noisier side, too. Still, it’s a great value if you don’t need to go wireless.

If you do want a wireless gaming mouse and don’t want to spend a ton, the Razer Basilisk V3 X HyperSpeed has the same shape and a quieter scroll wheel. It’s now on sale for $55, which is the lowest price we’ve seen and about $5 less than usual. It requires a AA battery for power, though, so it’s even heavier at 115 grams. It also uses less durable mechanical switches, and its scroll wheel lacks the left-right tilt and free-scrolling functionality.

$40 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

The Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite is available for $49, which is about $25 off the average street price we’ve tracked in recent months. This is the top MMO pick in our gaming mouse buying guide. It has 12 well-spaced side buttons that make it easier to play RPGs like Final Fantasy XIV or Baldur’s Gate 3, which often have you navigate several “hotbars” of commands at a time. Its rounded, gently sloped shape should fit most claw and palm grippers well, and its sensor is accurate enough for the games it’s designed to play. It’s not lightweight (107 grams), though, and its cable is somewhat stiff. The scroll wheel could stand to be firmer as well. But there aren’t a ton of great options in this niche nowadays; if you can live with a wire on your desk, it’s hard to do better for $50.

$49 at Amazon

Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget

The second-gen Backbone One mobile game controller is back down to $70 for Prime Day, which is a $30 discount. This offer applies to USB-C and Lightning versions of the device, in both the standard black and PlayStation-branded white colorways. 

If you have an older iPhone, the first-gen model is half off and down to $50. That one is broadly the same as newer version, but the latter works with wider range of phones and cases. It should be worth the extra cash if you plan to buy a new iPhone anytime soon. 

We gave the Backbone a positive review a few years back. It’s more cramped than a traditional gamepad, and the way Backbone nudges you toward its app and (unnecessary) subscription service can be annoying. But it’s built well, it has all the inputs needed to play modern games — including clickable joysticks and pressure-sensitive triggers — and it works instantly with just about any game that supports controller input. While it’s not the only device along these lines, it’s a comfortable option if you’re looking to stream console games over the cloud, emulate retro games or just play more involved mobile fare.

$70 at Amazon

WD

It’s a drag, but the only way to fully expand the storage of an Xbox Series X/S is to use a proprietary expansion card. (You can technically use a standard external hard drive as well, but you’ll only be able to store current-gen games on it, not play them.) Right now, there are only two official expansion cards available, but both of them are on sale for Prime Day.

The WD Black C50, for one, is down to $64 for a 512GB model and $118 for a 1TB model. The former is $15 off and an all-time low, while the latter is a roughly $30 discount.

$64 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

If you need more than 1TB of space, meanwhile, the 2TB version of Seagate’s Storage Expansion Card for Xbox is your only option. It’s currently discounted to $230. That’s not the lowest price we’ve seen, but it’s $20 below the device’s average street price over the last few months. The 1TB version of this card is also on sale for $123, but there’s little reason to get that when WD’s model is $10 cheaper and offers virtually identical performance.

To be clear, both Xbox cards are hugely overpriced compared to more traditional SSDs. Still, they’re just as fast as the Xbox’s internal storage, and setting them up is as simple as plugging them into the console’s expansion slot — no extra steps required. These deals should make them a tiny bit easier to stomach if you’re running out of room on your Series X/S and don’t want to constantly delete and reinstall games to make space.

$230 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

If you need a microSD card for your Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck, the 1TB Lexar Professional 1066x is worth considering at $77. That’s within a dollar of the card’s lowest price to date and about $13 below its average street price as of late. While this isn’t a formal recommendation in our microSD card buying guide, its transfer speeds aren’t terribly far off our top picks, so it’s a decent value when it’s discounted to this extent.

The 1.5TB SanDisk Ultra is also worth noting at $84, which is a $26 discount and an all-time low. This one is noticeably slower than the 1066x and our top picks, but the difference won’t be as noticeable on the Switch — which limits all microSD cards to UHS-I speeds — as it would be in, say, a camera. This is also just a wild price for a card with this much space.

$77 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

The Corsair Virtuoso Pro is available for $140, which is a new low and $10 below the typical sale price we’ve seen recently. 

This is an honorable mention in our guide to the best gaming headsets. It’s one of the few options with an open-back design, which helps games sound wider, more spacious and ultimately more enveloping than most of its peers. Its mic is decidedly less muffled than that of our top pick, the Astro A40 TR, too.

It’s still not as clear or detailed as the best “normal” open-back headphones in this price range (such as the Sennheiser HD 560S), its headband adjustment mechanism feels flimsy and its mic isn’t detachable on its own. And since the open-back design lets in lots of outside noise, it won’t be ideal if you often play in a noisy room. The A40 TR would still be our first choice if you want a dedicated gaming headset that focuses on audio quality. But the Virtuoso Pro is a good alternative at this price if you’re often in party chat.

$140 at Amazon

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

The Logitech G535 Lightspeed is down to $78, which is the second-best price we’ve seen and about $12 off the pair’s usual street price. 

This is another honorable mention in our gaming headsets guide, as we like its relatively balanced sound and lightweight, breathable design. It still has issues: There’s no Xbox support, it lacks deep bass and its mic makes voices sound fairly thin. You also have to crank the volume a bit for it to reach a listenable level. But if you want a wireless headset for less than $100, it’s a solid value.

$78 at Amazon

Logitech

The higher-end Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed is also on sale for $180.49. That’s another all-time low and a $70 discount. 

The G Pro X 2 isn’t a top pick in our gaming headset guide, but it’s worth a look when it’s discounted to this extent. While it can’t match the audio or mic quality of our favorite wireless headset, the Audeze Maxwell, its warm profile isn’t bad, it’s much lighter on the head and it gets close to 90 hours of battery life at moderate volumes. It can also connect over Bluetooth or a 3.5mm cable, though it can’t connect to more than one device at a time, and its wireless dongle doesn’t work with Xbox.

$180 at Amazon

Alienware

Moving over to gaming laptops, the Alienware m18 R2 is available for $2,380 for a config with a 165Hz QHD+ (2,560 x 1,600) display, an Intel Core i9-14900HX chip, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 GPU. That’s not cheap, but it’s $420 off the device’s standard price and the first major discount we could find for this model.

The m18 R2 is the 2024 version of the top 18-inch pick in our guide to the best gaming laptops. As the phrase “18-inch gaming laptop” would imply, this is a big boy, measuring about 1.05 inches thick and weighing nearly nine pounds. Combined with a battery that lasts about 4-5 hours when you aren’t gaming, it’s much more of a desktop replacement than something truly portable. That said, it’s built well for what it is, with a sturdy aluminum lid, a smooth hinge and a wide port selection. Most importantly, it can easily run modern AAA games at higher settings in 1080p or 1440p. Its memory and storage are both user-upgradeable, too, though its display could stand to be a bit brighter. Just note that this config has a membrane keyboard — Dell also sells a version with low-profile mechanical keys — and, like most notebooks in this class, it can get fairly hot and loud when stressed.

If you want to spend a little less, another config with a Core i7-14700HX chip, 16GB of RAM and an RTX 4070 GPU is on sale for $1,880. That’s another all-time low and about $385 below the device’s average street price as of late. This version will have a harder time with more demanding fare than the 4080 model, though, particularly when playing in 1440p. So, you may need to tone down the graphical settings in certain games to reach a consistently high frame rate. It technically has fewer storage upgrade slots as well.

$2,380 at Amazon

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

The Razer Blade 15 with an Intel Core i7-13800H processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU is on sale for $1,600. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for this config and $100 less than its street price over the past couple of months. This model includes a 15.6-inch, 16:9 display with 1440p resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate.

The Blade 15 is the “premium” recommendation in our gaming laptop buying guide. It’s more than a year old at this point, and even with this discount, it’s not as good of a value as our overall top pick (the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, which isn’t a part of Amazon’s sale). Instead, you’d get a Blade for its design, which is marked by clean lines and a sturdy, all-black aluminum finish. (It is a fingerprint magnet, though.) 

This config is powerful enough to play modern AAA games in 1080p or 1440p beyond that — again, the latter may require you to tune down settings in certain games to see very high frame rates — and it comes with a healthy array of ports. You can also upgrade its storage and memory. It can get hot, and its battery life isn’t great, but it’s at least a little more appealing at this price if you want a 15-inch gaming machine and are particular about your notebook’s look and feel.

Several other Razer Blade models are on sale as well, though they aren’t cheap. A version of the 2024 Blade 14 with a Ryzen 9 8945HS chip and 32GB of RAM is $200 off, for instance, but that only brings it down to $2,500. The latest iteration of the Blade 16 is “down” to $2,599, while the 18-inch Blade 18 still costs a whopping $2,800 after a Prime Day discount.

$1,600 at Amazon

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

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