Month: September 2020

Update 9/28: Amazon has officially announced October 13-14 as the Prime Date 2020 dates

We didn’t get Amazon Prime Day 2020 during its usual time slot in July, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Amazon has announced October 13-14 as the official Prime Day dates. Historically, Prime Day is Amazon’s biggest sale day of the year outside of Black Friday. Despite the delay, we fully expect there to be best-of-2020 deals that are worth waiting for. If you want to be prepared for the thousands of deals that will go live on that one day, then read through this article and make sure you have all bases covered.

Note that other merchants, including Best Buy, Walmart, and Dell, will probably be hosting their own sales to compete with Amazon Prime Day.

How Can You Prepare for Amazon Prime Day 2020?

Bookmark This Page

When Prime Day goes live, this page will redirect to IGN’s Amazon Prime Day mega-article with every (good) deal we find. Bookmark it now and check back when the time comes.

Bookmark Amazon’s Official Prime Day 2020 Page

There are already a few deals up, and this will be the hub for all of Amazon’s Prime Day deals. This will also be the best page to look for the latest Lightning Deals.

Sign Up for an Amazon Prime Membership

And don’t forget to stay logged in!

Amazon Prime members get the best deals on Prime Day. If you’re a seasoned Amazon shopper, then I would recommend signing up for the 1 year membership since that offers the best long-term value. The $119/yr fee is well worth the many perks of Amazon Prime. If you don’t normally shop at Amazon and Prime Day is an exception, there are cheaper ways to get a Prime membership.

• If you’ve never signed up for Amazon Prime, you’re eligible for a free 30-day trial membership
• If you’ve already used up a trial, Amazon offers 1 month of Prime for only $12.99
• If you’re a student and you’ve never signed up, you’re eligible for a free 6-month trial
• If you’re a student and previously signed up, you can still get 50% off 1 year of Prime

Sign Up for a Free Amazon Prime Rewards Card

Amazon Prime Membership Required

This is definitely one of my personal favorite cards. The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card gives you 5% cashback on all Amazon purchases and has no annual fee. If you’re a regular Amazon shopper, that perk alone should be reason enough for you to sign up for this card. You’ll also get 2% cashback at restaurants, drug stores, and gas stations and 1% back everywhere else.

That’s not all. You also get a $50 Amazon Credit when you sign up. On Amazon Prime Day, Amazon card members will get exclusive discounts of up to 15% off several categories. In the past that’s included cameras, home theater electronics, home decor, video games, and more.

Paying With Your Debit Card? You Can Still Get Cashback!

Amazon Prime Membership Required

For those of you who prefer making purchases with a debit card instead of a credit card, you’re still in luck. Simply reload your Amazon balance with a debit card and get 2% cashback. All you’re doing is transferring funds from one account (your debit card) to another (your Amazon account) and Amazon is essentially rewarding you for it.

Get Free Credits for Choosing Standard (Non-Expedited) Shipping

One of the biggest perks for Amazon Prime members is the free expedited shipping. But do you need expedited shipping for every purchase? If you choose free standard shipping instead. Amazon will give you $1-$5 worth of Amazon credits good for digital goods (like games and software), Prime Pantry, music, Kindle digital books, and more. One of the great perks about this deal is that your digital credit stacks up; order enough items and you could potentially get games for free.

Amazon Alexa Device Owners Are Eligible for Exclusive Prime Day Deals

If you own an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, Fire TV, or Fire Tablet device, ask your device “Alexa, what are your deals“, and Alexa will spit out unique deals that can’t be found anywhere else. Amazon has confirmed that there will be quite a few Alexa-exclusive deals on Prime Day.

What Kind of Deals Will We Expect

On previous Prime Days, Amazon touted “hundreds of thousands of deals” and that has more or less been true. Although Amazon has been more tight lipped this year around, we expect a similar Prime Day scenario. These deals encompass pretty much every category that Amazon offers. The vast majority of these deals are from more obscure marketplace vendors, but there are still thousands of deals on name brand items sold and shipped from Amazon. These usually include PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo gaming consoles, gaming laptops and PCs, Apple iPads and MacBooks, 4K TVs, Amazon Echo and Kindle devices, Roomba vacuum cleaners, Instant Pot pressure cookers and more. Deals are divided into two types: “Prime Day Deals” that last the entire day and “Lightning Deals” that only last a few hours (or a few minutes if the item is super popular).

Here are some of the best deals  we saw last year:

• Buy $25 in Amazon Gift Cards, Get $5 Amazon Credit
• Nintendo Switch + $35 eShop Credit
• PS4 Slim 1TB with Spider-Man and Horizon Zero Dawn
• PS4 Pro 1TB with God of War and Days Gone
• Apple AirPods 2 Wireless Earphones Wireless Charging Case

• 49″ Sony BRAVIA XBR49X800E 4K Smart HDTV
• Bose QuietComfort 25 Noise Cancelling Headphones
• Latest Model Apple iPad Pro 11″ WiFi 512GB Tablet
• One Year of PS Plus Membership

• Amazon Echo Dot
• Amazon Fire TV Stick with $45 SlingTV Credit for $14.99
• Amazon Fire TV 4K with $45 SlingTV Credit for $24.99

• 43″ Toshiba 43LF621U19 4K Smart HDTV
• Instant Pot DUO 60 6 Qt 9-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker
• Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones
• 23andMe DNA Health + Ancestry Test Kit
• iRobot Roomba 891 WiFi Robot Vacuum

• SteelSeries Arctis 7 Lag-Free 7.1ch Wireless Gaming Headset
• Super Mario Party for Switch
• WD Elements 10TB USB 3.0 External Desktop Hard Drive
• SanDisk Ultra 400GB Micro SDXC Card
• Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet with 32GB

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.

Fortnite developer Epic Games is continuing to expand with the acquisition of SuperAwesome, a company that creates tools for developers to “to create safer digital experiences for younger audiences.”

While Epic has acquired other game studios in the past, such as Rocket League developer Psyonix, it has also looked towards companies that make tools for developers, such as the facial animation tech of Cubic Motion.

“SuperAwesome’s Kids Web Services platform is a parental consent management toolkit that makes it easier for developers to build great experiences for users of all ages,” Epic’s press release explains. The company also runs a tool called AwesomeAds, allowing devs to “offer kid-safe monetization inside their products.”

SuperAwesome’s tools are already used by a number of big companies such as Lego, NBC Universal, and Hasbro. “SuperAwesome remains committed to supporting existing customers and will partner with Epic Games to further their mission to make the internet a safer place for kids,” the release reads.

“More kids interact online than ever before and now is the time to double down on their safety,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said about the acquisition. While it’s unknown exactly how many people under 18 play Epic’s huge battle royale Fortnite, the game is anecdotally known to attract a young audience.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has received a new costume, and it’s based on one of the most acclaimed platform-puzzle games of the last few years. The costume is based on Gris, and it gives your little guy a wig that looks like the hair of Gris’ protagonist. The costume can be purchased on PS4 and PC.

You can see the costume in the tweet below. Buying the Gris costume will set you back 10 crowns, so hopefully you’ve racked up some wins if you want it.

Fall Guys has previously received costumes from Half-Life 2 and Hotline Miami, but Gris is a very different sort of game from either of those, with no combat elements. A costume in Fall Guys is a big deal, with the viral hit having previously brought in $1 million for charity in exchange for an in-game costume.

Like Fall Guys, Gris was also published by Devolver Digital. The game received a 9/10 in GameSpot’s review, with critic Tom McShea writing that “Gris understands intrinsically how magical video games can be and continually pushes your imagination until you’re almost bursting with joy. The ways in which it reinvents itself as you gain powers and dive ever deeper into this world is truly special, and just as it knows exactly when to pull back the camera or introduce a new song, it’s keenly aware of when it’s time to say goodbye.”

If you nab the Gris costume, you’ll still have to watch out for Big Yeetus–unlike in Gris, you can’t float to slow your fall here. The developer of Fall Guys, Mediatonic, is also seeking name suggestions for a new hazard–hopefully they don’t settle on “Bigger Yeetus.”

Season 6 will soon begin in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone, and it appears PlayStation owners will be able to pre-load it.

CharlieIntel noticed that the official PlayStation account tweeted (and then deleted) a message regarding pre-loading for the Season 6 update. The site reported that some people have already been able to pre-load the expansion, but the since-deleted tweet suggests that pre-loading should be available for everyone relatively soon, if it’s not already.

Update 1.27 adds Season 6 to Modern Warfare and Warzone, and the update is expected to be around 20 GB in size. According to CharlieIntel, pre-loading is being broken down into two waves on PS4–some people got it overnight on September 27 and others will receive the pre-load now. Pre-loading is not available on PC and Xbox One, the site said.

The Season 6 update officially arrives on September 29, so it won’t be much longer until everyone gets a crack at it.

Season 6 adds two of Modern Warfare’s main characters from the campaign–freedom fighter Farah Karim and Soviet soldier Nikolai. The expansion also is believed to add a new underground subway system, which may provide a new setting for the Warzone map.

Activision has yet to announce the full specifics of what’s in the Season 6 update, but you can expect a new Battle Pass, along with various other updates.

This update is coming less than two months before Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War arrives in November. A beta for the game will be held in October–here’s how to get in.

Spelunky 2 is set to be released on PC on September 29, and unfortunately it won’t launch with online co-op as developer Mossmouth is working to “improve it without delaying the release.”

Spelunky 2 creator Derek Yu took to Twitter to say that even though that may be disappointing news for some, the “upside is that when we add it back, it will have cross-play with PS4!”

Yu also discussed how PS4 recently got two big patches that “fixed a lot of issues based on your feedback (thank you!) and also improved online co-op significantly.”

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So, even though the PC version of Spelunky 2 won’t have co-op at launch, PC players won’t have to wait any longer to play the game we gave a 10/10.

In our review for Spelunky 2, we said it “is a masterpiece of procedurally generated platforming that stays true to the legendarily challenging original while also holding surprises around every corner.”

If you are preparing to play, or already attempting to master it on PS4, be sure to check out our guide on how to unlock all three shortcuts and our best tips and tricks to survive this challenging, but supremely rewarding, game.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

As part of The Last of Us Day 2020’s celebrations, Naughty Dog revealed some new gorgeous art by Kojima Productions’ Yoji Shinkawa of Ellie, Abby, and Joel.

This new artwork, which you can see below, is very reminiscent of Shinkawa’s previous art from both the Metal Gear franchise and Death Stranding, and you can download it for free on PC or mobile to use as a wallpaper, if you so choose.

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In addition to this artwork, Mondo revealed new The Last of Us 2 posters and vinyl with striking art from Tula Lotay.

The day before The Last of Us Day 2020, Naughty Dog announced it would be changing the name of its Outbreak Day to The Last of Us Day due to COVID-19 and “the events of the last year and the challenges we all continue to face.”

It also teased some of the fun for The Last of Us Day 2020, including that CMON is developing a The Last of Us board game, a new free The Last of Us Part II Beach Theme would be available to all PS4 users, and new statues of Joel and Ellie would be made available.

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While there wasn’t much breaking news from these festivities, The Last of Us Part 2 writer/director Neil Druckman did give the vaguest of teases for the next iteration of The Last of Us’ Faction multiplayer that was cut from The Last of Us Part 2, but was promised to return in some form.

Thank you to all the wonderful fans for an incredible #TheLastofUsDay ! Your positivity and love is incredibly inspiring,” Druckman wrote. “Oh… and about that other thing… be patient. It’ll be worth it.”

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

According to Xbox head Phil Spencer, Microsoft is still planning to release gaming hardware following the launch of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, despite the games industry leaning more towards an all-digital, cloud-based future.

Speaking to Yahoo! Finance, Spencer confirmed that Microsoft is still planing on developing dedicated gaming hardware, at least in the short term, even though services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna are changing the ways the world plays games.

“In terms of future hardware, absolutely I think we’re going to see more console hardware down the road,” Spencer stated, “Just like in video, just like in music, it’s not that streaming has cut off device innovation. I think we’ll continue to see that, and that’s absolutely what we’re planning for.”

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Obviously, things can always change in the future, but it appears Microsoft isn’t quite yet ready to fully commit to this digital future. Where Microsoft’s innovation lies, however, is clearly in Xbox Game Pass.

With Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft has been building a strategy that will allow you to play Xbox games on many different devices, including PC and mobile devices. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to see Xbox Game Pass eventually make its way to TVs or other platforms as well.

We may not know what the far future holds, but we do know that Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will be released on November 10, 2020, and will cost $499 and $299 USD, respectively.

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As for Xbox Game Pass, its value continues to rise with the announcements like that of Microsoft buying Bethesda, meaning all future Bethesda games, including Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield, will launch on Xbox Game Pass on day 1.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Disclaimer: Greg Kasavin is the former executive editor of GameSpot. Mike Hahardy also previously worked for GameSpot.

Hades recently left Early Access and released version 1.0 on PC and Switch, and players have been digging into all the little details sprinkled throughout the game. Now, in a brief Twitter thread about a tremendous reactive narrative moment, the game’s writer has shared some insight into the philosophy behind the game’s writing.

Polygon‘s Mike Mahardy noted on Twitter that Megaera, one of the Fury bosses in the game, chastized him during a fight for taking her own after taking on so many upgrades from the mirror in Zagreus’ room. So, out of curiosity, he reset his upgrades and fought her again–and found that she actually acknowledged that he’d done it after their discussion.

Greg Kasavin popped up in the responses to offer some more insight, revealing that there are different variations on the discussions you can have with Meg back in the House of Hades after all of this transpires, too.

In a follow-up, Kasavin explained the simple philosophy underpinning the game’s writing, and said that an Early Access release made it easier to keep fine-tuning the characters and their interactions. The game sold about 700,000 copies in Early Access.

According to Kasavin, the game continued to add new check conditions as it grew, and by the time of full release it was quite hard to track everything.

Hades earned a 9/10 in GameSpot’s review, and its writing was singled out as one of its best qualities. “What sets Hades apart isn’t just that it’s a great roguelike with the kind of repeatable depth that makes it engrossing to play for hours, but also how it uses its structure to tell an ongoing story about family, secrets, and resolution,” wrote reviewer Suriel Vazquez.