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Ever since the Atari 2600, video games have been a staple of holiday shopping — and this year is no exception, with retailers slashing prices on video games and video game accessories for consoles and PCs during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales derby.

Though prized current-generation consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox One are still close to impossible to come by — no thanks to the double-whammy of a microchip shortage and global shipping crisis —there are still plenty of deals to take advantage of, especially when it comes to the ever-popular, cross-generational favorite the Nintendo Switch and major retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon.

We’ve looked through our previous coverage, considered Select reader interest and consulted price trackers to find top-quality deals and sales for you to consider this Black Friday holiday shopping season.

Black Friday 2021: The best video game deals from Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and more

Based on our previous coverage, we rounded up the best deals on highly rated video games and video game accessories Select readers have shown interest in. We also noted the value of each discount against historical pricing, according to price trackers like Honey.

Call of Duty: Vanguard (PS5, Xbox One)

• Lowest price ever, according to Honey
• 4.4-star average rating from 172 reviews at Best Buy
• One of the newest additions to the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Vanguard immerses gamers in World War II battles across continents. The game includes a single player campaign, a multiplayer experience and a new Zombies mode.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)

• Lowest price since July, according to Honey
• 4.8-star average rating from about 400 reviews at Walmart
• This universally acclaimed video game classic was included at the top of our list of Nintendo Switch games to buy. It’s an open-world sandbox with a watercolor aesthetic that offers hundreds of challenges with the shrines alone, according to Nintendo.

FIFA 22 (PS5, Xbox One)

• Lowest price ever, according to Honey
• 4.4-star average rating out of over 100 reviews at Amazon
• The latest iteration of the soccer series includes improved goalkeeper behavior, realistic ball physics, an explosive sprint option and new offensive tactics, according to the publisher.

Far Cry 6 (PS5, Xbox One)

• Lowest price since July, according to Honey
• 4.2-star average rating out of over 600 reviews at GameStop
• The latest installment of the popular first-person-shooter series is the “most expansive Far Cry to date,” according to the publisher, with action taking place in jungles, on beaches and a city.

Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Edition (PS4, Xbox One)

• Lowest price since July, according to Honey
• 4.7-star average rating from over 2,000 reviews at GameStop
• Avoid the bug-ridden mess that is the Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster and instead join the world of one of the bestselling entertainment products of all time, which still has a vibrant online community. This edition comes with the Criminal Enterprise starter pack.

Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo Switch)

• Lowest price since July, according to Honey
• 4.8-star average rating from over 1,000 reviews at Best Buy
• With the Ring-Con accessory, players explore a fantastic world, defeat bodybuilding dragons and jog across windswept plains by exercising, doing yoga poses and working out in real life, according to the publisher.

Just Dance 2022 (Nintendo Switch)

• Lowest price since July, according to Honey
• 4.8-star average rating from over 250 reviews at Amazon
• Mixing exercise with video game fun, Just Dance 2022 comes with 40 new songs, including kid-friendly songs and kid-accessible choreography, according to the publisher.

Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

• Lowest price since July, according to Honey
• 4.7-star average rating from over 9,400 reviews at Amazon
• This gaming mouse has a 1-millisecond report rate and 250 hours of play on a single AA battery, according to Logitech. It weighs 99 grams.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Gaming Laptop

• Lowest price since July, according to Honey
• 4.6-star average review out of over 750 reviews at Amazon
• The Razer Blade 15 sports an Intel Core i7-10875H 8-Core, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q graphics card, 15.6-inch FHD 300Hz screen, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

Black Friday 2021: The best video game sales

We've compiled this list of Black Friday video game sales based on Select reader interest and previous coverage. Sales include multiple deals, and not every product listed in a sale is going to be the best deal around.

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Activision and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are major supporters of the U.S. armed forces. As an example, there have been multiple bundle sales and charity efforts regarding U.S. military recruitment and veteran services. Due to the nature of Modern Warfare, the connection between the two organizations seems obvious, but the U.S. military has been involved in the gaming world for much longer than just the 2020 release.

The U.S. Army, Airforce, Navy, and other branches all have a level of investment in the video game world and the Call of Duty esports community. Due to failures in traditional recruiting methods, the U.S. Military has doubled down on its digital recruitment efforts and found unconventional ways to reach prospective soldiers.

RELATED: New Modern Warfare SAS Operator Is Based On A Heroic British SAS Trooper

Recruitment Failure Results in Digital Investment

The future of digital entertainment was doubted for a long time by experts in the industry. Although the world of video games continued to grow, many skeptics thought that it would be a fad. As time progressed into the 90s and personal computers, television sets, and entertainment systems started to become more accessible, the future of video games seemed like a bright and prospering opportunity.

The U.S. Military found itself ahead of the curve and through the Pentagon have been sponsoring video game development since the early 2000s. In 2002, the first-person shooter America's Armylaunched for Windows systems and acted as a brand new recruitment system allowing players to explore the Army at their own pace. This is the earliest use of U.S. Army recruiting in the world of video games, but it is not the last attempt.

The military watched as the gaming industry grew and occasionally put out updated versions of their America's Army project. As of 2015, the Pentagon included "Electronic Games" in Instruction 5410.16. This added video games into the list of varying media that would "benefit Military Service recruiting and retention programs," which eventually grew into esports and U.S. Army using social media for recruitment.

Evolution into Esports

Esports started gaining mainstream popularity around the same time and continued to grow into the competitive empire that fans can see today. As of 2018, the Military had founded its own esports team putting another voice into the un-monitored world of competitive gaming. As online gaming continued to grow in popularity, the U.S. Military continued to expand into streaming and competing in other popular games.

As of now, the U.S. Army Esports is made up of active duty and reserve personnel who compete in some of the most popular games on the market. The U.S. Army Esports team is broken into the following divisions: Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch, and Magic: The Gathering. By accessing some of the most popular esports games on the web, it has direct access to thousands of gamers of all ages who could be valued recruits for the U.S. armed services.

The esports team has been buried in controversy since its launch. The online community was quick to troll and harass the competitors, and allegations of fake giveaways ruined a large point of their credibility. As of July 22, 2020, a bill was circulating the U.S. House of Representatives to try and prohibit the U.S. Military from having a "presence on Twitch or any video game. e-sports, or live-streaming platform."

Modern Recruitment Strategies

The focus of digital recruitment has been increased in recent months due to COVID-19 limiting physical events. Turning back towards esports as a recruitment tool, the U.S. Military is looking closer at the gamer-to-soldier solution. It is a common practice when recruiting for the armed forces to stress the pride, glory, and valor of defending the nation, but in a gamer-driven environment, those messages do not stick as well.

Although the esports team is not staffed by military recruiters, the team is part of the Army's recruiting command. Giveaways hosted on the U.S. Army Twitch channel were easily targeting kids as young as 12 with many of the application forms redirecting to military recruiting forms. Although the Army has admitted that the forms are used for recruitment, it stands by the legitimacy of the giveaways themselves.

Recently, the U.S. Marine Corp hosted a Warzone tournament in which players competed at a national level. The tournament was designed as a chance to boost recruitment numbers and spread awareness of Marine Corp opportunities. The top trios teams that made it to the end would have their ranks reinforced with an active duty marine whose job was to practice with the team and support them in the final stage of the tournament. Alongside the gameplay responsibilities, the marines were instructed to discuss enlistment opportunities with the competitors and advise them on the next steps towards recruitment.

Although the Marine Corp was completely above board on its intentions, not every organization in the military has been as honest. With open microphone opportunities in Fortnite, Warzone, and League of Legends, there is no telling who the gamers are talking to. Un-monitored channels are a perfect place for U.S. Military recruitment programs to reach out to children as young as 12. Although this does not break any rules or laws, many parents are simply unaware of the possibilities in digital gaming at a massive online level.

The results of these recruitment strategies are currently unknown, but the persistent efforts of the U.S. military show some level of success. Recruiting straight from a digital environment is much easier than traditional methods, and the lack of parental awareness makes it even more powerful. The Military will most likely not change its tactics and adapt around any legislation passed limiting its esports program, but parents need to be aware of the tactics and strategies being deployed.

Simply being aware of who children are talking to in these massive digital realms can go a long way towards safety. Monitoring children's interactions also aid the U.S. Military's efforts as it can get them connected with Modern Warfare and Fortnite fans who might have a real interest in a military career. As the esports and gaming community continues to grow, the relationship between esports, Call of Duty, and the U.S. Armed Forces will grow with it providing even more opportunities for recruitment, and it's up to individuals to understand how to navigate it. For those who want to join the military, it's a great personal connection; on the other hand, it may seem intrusive for younger children.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

MORE: Will Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Be at State of Play?

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Joshua Goodpastor (1075 Articles Published)

A lover of RPGs, Board Games, and Storytelling Joshua is a gamer to the core. He loves story-driven narratives but also spends ample time in the battlefields of varying Call of Duty titles. Despite dominating in multiplayer shooters, his heart will forever follow the Final Fantasy franchise and Legend of Zelda experiences that tell stories and evolve the player as much as the characters.

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Since the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S went on sale last fall, Best Buy hasn’t sold next-gen consoles at its brick-and-mortar locations, citing safety concerns around covid-19. That changed on Wednesday, when the big box retailer said it would sell a limited supply at stores across the country today. Predictably, the whole thing has been A Lot.

For the past ten months, it’s been nearly impossible to get your hands on an Xbox Series X/S or a PS5, despite both outpacing sales records of their predecessor consoles. Typically, when stock for the Xbox Series X/S or the PS5 becomes available, it does so digitally, either via third-party retailers—Walmart, Target, and, if you pay for the premium membership, GameStop—or direct buys from Microsoft and Sony. There’s usually almost no heads up for such availability. And when listings do go live, they go away in the blink of an eye, with products scooped up by bots, scalpers, and digital shoppers who are one with the Matrix.

Best Buy bucked that trend by—and I know this might sound unbelievable, given the tactics of the past year—actually giving a heads up. As reported by IGN, Best Buy said it would offer limited supplies of next-gen consoles at 300 locations around the country: at least one store in every state, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

The ploy resulted in people camping out overnight, in lines that stretch around stores, all in the efforts to play next-gen games like Returnal and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (or, let’s be real, a backward-compatible version of Grand Theft Auto V). Take a look at this line, recorded by popular Call of Duty YouTuber TmarTn, at a Best Buy at the MIllenia Mall in Orlando:

Local North Carolina CBS affiliate WFMY captured a similar line at a Best Buy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:

Not quite as frenetic as lines for the area’s famous Winston-Salem Open, of course, but still not what you’d want to see when trying to pick up a consumer product that’s not actually new and already owned by millions of people.

Here’s a photo from Bob Varettoni, comms director at the New York-based Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, showing the queues this morning at the Best Buy on Fifth Avenue:

And another, snapped by Twitter user @alfarosalvador, showing dozens of folks weathering the rain:

Right now, social media is rife with similar accounts: photos and videos of excruciating lines, stories of success and failure.

In March, the NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella told Kotaku that, by the end of summer, the supply shortage of next-gen consoles could resemble some state of “normal”—where you’d be able to just pop into your local GameStop and pick up a console off the shelf. But he was clear to note that such a prediction was optimistic, to say the least, and was entirely contingent on “nothing else [going] wrong.”

Summer ended two days ago. A whole lot has gone wrong. The global semiconductor shortage that’s driving this scarcity is now expected to last through next year. But hey, at least a few more people were able to score a PS5 this Thursday.

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