The Best, Easiest Ways to Learn About Nintendo Game Sales
Now that I’m a gamer (have had a Nintendo Switch for one month), I’ve found some little tricks to help save money, time, and frustration. The Nintendo eShop has sales all the time, but apart from making a wishlist and hoping Nintendo emails you when something on that wishlist is on sale, keeping track is all up to you.
A screenshot of the NT Deals app page for My Time at Portia
First I got an app, NT Deals (there is also a website, which I don’t use for reasons I will soon explain), that allows you to make a wishlist and then get push notifications to your phone when something on your wishlist goes on sale. You can also use the app to see the lowest price a game has ever been (but can’t see the whole price history without paying for a premium account), and to get a few details about the game itself (release date, description, ratings). I thought this was pretty great, until I found out about Deku Deals.
Deku Deals asked the people what they want, and the people said, “DATA”
Deku Deals is 97% perfect, and offers every bit of info I’d like about a game, for free. It would be 100% perfect if they had an app, because I’m literally only keeping NT Deals on my phone for those push notifications. I don’t check my email very thoroughly — even though I DO have my phone within arm’s reach all day.
Deku Deals will not only show me the price history of a game on the eShop, they’ll also include both digital and physical copies, and from retailers like Target, Amazon, and Best Buy. I can not only see the lowest price a game has ever been, but also see the price history going back at least a year, and can see patterns and plan my purchases. If a game I’m interested in is $30, but I know it goes on sale roughly every six weeks for $7, like HELL I’m paying $30, I can wait (this happened last week with My Time at Portia, and why I’m using it as my example).
My Time at Portia doesn’t have time listed, so this is Subnautica: Below Zero
Another service Deku Deals provides is a little guide to how much play time you have in the game. This is incredibly helpful to me, because I associate monetary value with length of entertainment. My grandma, who taught me to gamble at a very young age and then took me gambling at a legal age, would always say the goal in gaming (we played video poker) isn’t to make a ton of money, it’s to see how long you can play with just $20 (or however much, you might be rich, idk). This applies to so many areas of life, not just casinos, so if I see that a game has seven hours of gameplay and it’s $15, I’m not so into it. But if it’s 40 hours of gameplay for $15, I’m interested.
If I see or hear about a game that I might be interested in, I add it to my wishlist, and can choose to be alerted to any sale, an all-time low, or a set price of my choosing. I LOVED playing Wylde Flowers on Apple Arcade, and would love it for Switch, but right now the price is too high for me. So I have Deku Deals all set to alert me when the game is under $15.
I’ve exponentially grown my Switch game collection, but for a fraction of the MSRP, thanks to NT Deals and Deku Deals. Now if only Deku Deals would give me an APP.
