Early access isn''t just for games, according to Amazon Prime''s early access sale, which will begin this October 11th to October 12, 2019 - a full six weeks before Black Friday 2022, and from a PC gaming perspective will offer the same kinds of components and peripheral deals as the annual pre-Christmas shoppingfest. Just earlier.
That said, the Prime Early Access Sale isn''t a purely prelude to Black Friday''s anything-goes chaos. Its more like a Prime Day 2, in that it''s an Amazon-only event, with all the best deals expected to be required to access. It''s certainly true, as long as it''s one of.
Im anticipating being at the deal coalface in October anyway, alongside my Eurogamer and Digital Foundry colleagues, so will no doubt be highlighting any excellent offers (hopefully for our best hardware picks). In the meantime, here''s a guide on how the Prime Early Access Sale will work, what kinds of deals to anticipate, and if you decide to partake, how to ensure you actually get some bargains.
When is the Prime Early Access Sale, exactly?
The Prime Early Access Sale is being promoted as a 48-hour event from October 11th to November 12th, and technically thats accurate, although when precisely the event starts will vary by time zone. In the United Kingdom, the sale starts at 12am BST, whereas in the United States, it starts at 12am PDT eight hours later.
On October 12, the Prime Early Access Sale will be concluded at 11:59pm. Well, there is likely to be no turnaround, as it will only take place in 15 countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey.
Do I need a Prime account for this sale?
At least for getting access to all the juiciest deals, there will almost certainly be other discounts on PC gaming hardware during the Prime Early Access Sale, but these will be the ho-hum offerings that hover around Amazon normally. Just as with Prime Day, the most significant price cuts will be for Prime members only.
You can now be cheeky and subscribe for a 30-day free trial called Primes; this will temporarily net you all the benefits of a full membership, including access to the Prime Early Access Sale. There is no real catch to cancelling after you have completed the fill before those 30 free days are up. If you end up wanting to stick with your membership, it will cost 9 / $15 per month.
What sort of Prime Early Access agreements are we talking about?
It''s essentially a second Amazon Prime Day that resembles Black Friday buildup. Both deals on PC hardware such as SSDs, mice, and keyboards are essential items of both, and you can absolutely expect this sort of kit to get discounts. The same goes for headsets and other crucial components like the RTX 30 series and AMD Radeon RX 6000 series, as well as some upgrades.
I suspect that the fact that Prime sales and Black Friday support a lot of the same hardware raises a question: should you grab it then, or wait until Black Friday for a potentially better saving? I reckon that depends on the amount of the discount. If you want a 100 headset that is only 5 off, then yeah, it''s probably better to wait. However, the value of the agreement arguably outweighs the possibility that it might become somewhat cheaper again in November.
I still adore Amazon.Will there be agreements from other manufacturers as well?
This is the first Prime Early Access Sale, and unlike Prime Day, there is no real precedent for (what we like to call) Anti-Prime Day deals being run by rival retailers.
However, it''s possible that PC gear dealers like Scan, Overclockers, Currys, Best Buy, Newegg, etc. will merge things together in the next couple of weeks, just to compete. Or it may be that they will be running early Black Friday sales anyway, in which case youll have options if youre in a shopping mood. These would not require a Prime member to take advantage of.
How to Get the Best Deals on Amazon Prime Early Access
Here are a few suggestions for a smoother, hopefully more successful Prime Early Access sale assuming youre on board.
On the 11th and 12th, myself and a few others will be looking through Amazon for the best deals, mainly because to be specific, that means substantial discounts on PC gaming equipment that is at least pretty good. It will not go live until closer to the time, but there will be a handy guide on RPS with our curated deal picks across both days.
I''ve seen this three sales events in a row but I believe the Keepa browser extension is fantastic at reducing your costs before and after a major sale, therefore some sellers will drop their prices back down to create the illusion of a good saving; Keepa lets you avoid this trap by adding a price tracking graph to every Amazon listing you read. This will tell you if the sale price is the real deal, or if it is returning to normal pricing after a little inflation.
Remember that these types of sales are ideal examples to save money on items you would want to purchase anyway dont get carried away without relying on hardware you wont make the most of. After the sale, you may go ahead and add them to your basked before the sale begins. After the sale, you can immediately check whether items have been subjected to savings. Any surplus can be quickly removed from your basket, before shopping.
The Amazon Prime-exclusive sales cover a wide spectrum of services, but it isn''t always helpful if you''re looking for something specific. On the main Prime Early Access deals page, look for and make good use of the filters on the left-hand side; these will remove all the foot massagers and bike pumps, leaving just those sweet, sweet PC hardware deals. Maybe you want a foot massager. Not judging.
