The supply chain hasn’t been kind to anyone this year, but there’s still time to order some gifts before the holidays (even if a few might not ship in time). Many of us will be playing inside for the next few months due to the weather. We’ve found plenty of great deals on gaming hardware and accessories, and even a few upgrades for your home theater to play them on while you wait until spring.
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Home Theater Deals
Hisense U8G
Photograph: Hisense
It’s been a pretty great year for deals on some of our favorite TVs so far. 4K HDR sets have been around long enough that even if your budget is tight, you can find a display that looks crisp and bright. We’ve found a few deals on TVs and soundbars, some of which are even less expensive than we saw throughout Black Friday.
The HiSense U8G ULED TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of our favorite televisions this year. It has excellent local dimming, a 120Hz refresh rate and support for AMD FreeSync—which is great for gaming—and somehow its price is slightly lower than we saw it over Cyber Week.
The thing we like the most about TCL TVs is their price-to-performance ratio. Even if they don’t match the picture quality of several-thousand-dollar TVs from higher-end brands, you can still get something pretty great on a budget.
The LG C1 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) was the best TV we tested in 2021. It supports G-Sync and AMD FreeSync at 120Hz and 4K, so it can keep up with all your new console and gaming PC upgrades. Better yet, it has deep black levels and a vibrant, high-contrast display, making it one of our favorites.
Soundbars’ biggest strength are their convenience, and Roku’s Streambar doubles down on that. On top of being a decent soundbar, it packs in Roku OS, letting you stream music or audio directly to the device, and control it all with voice commands.
Gaming Peripherals
Nintendo Switch Pro Controller
Photograph: Nintendo
Hopefully you managed to snag a console this year, despite the supply chain issues. But once you’ve got the box in your house, you still might find yourself in need of a gaming headset, spare controller, or other accessories for your Switch, Xbox Series S/X, or, if you’ve managed to be very lucky, PlayStation 5.
The Switch Pro Controller is one of our favorites for the console. The Joy-Cons are fine, but this is much more comfortable for long gaming sessions or intense gameplay. In other words, Hades. It also has excellent battery life, and now it’s slightly cheaper than we saw it during Cyber Week.
A recent entry in our list of favorite wireless gaming headsets, the Astro A50’s defining feature is its wireless charging base. When you’re done playing, just set the headset in its cradle and it’ll be charged and ready the next time you play.
Hopefully you were able to get your hands on the Xbox Series S/X you wanted already, but if not (or even if you did), many exclusive games are still available via Xbox Cloud Gaming, which comes included with Game Pass Ultimate. Clips like this one from PowerA let you attach your phone to a controller and stream games anywhere, even away from the couch.
Joy-Con controllers don’t charge the typical way most controllers do, instead charging when they’re attached to the Switch itself. If you’d rather keep playing while docked, this charging grip is one of our favorite accessories. It allows you to plug in a USB cable to keep charging your controllers, even while unconnected from your console.
Video Game Deals
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Photograph: Amazon
Getting consoles may be difficult, but finding games for them is easy. We’ve found a bunch of deals on games for every console, some of which are shockingly low compared to how we usually see them throughout the year!
Switch Game Deals
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for $40 ($20 off)
- New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe for $40 ($20 off)
- Super Mario 3D World Plus Bowser’s Fury for $46 ($14 off)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons for $40 ($10 off)
- Splatoon 2 for $42 ($18 off)
PS5/PS4 Game Deals
- The Last of Us Part II for $20 ($20 off)
- Crysis Remaster Trilogy for $30 ($20 off)
- Just Dance 2022 for $30 ($20 off)
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy for $40 ($20 off)
- Life is Strange: True Colors for $35 ($25 off)
Xbox X/S/One Game Deals
- Crysis Remaster Trilogy for $31 ($19 off)
- Mass Effect: Legendary Edition for $33 ($7 off)
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy for $40 ($20 off)
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