This is a deal worth paying attention to
Yesterday, I bought new copies of Sunset Overdrive and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor at Microsoft Store. My out-of-pocket total came to $6.79. And, I got the added bonus of clearing off some shelf space that was occupied by terribly old games I never had any intention of playing again. Here’s how I did it.
This week, Microsoft Store is offering a trade-in promotion where it’ll give you a minimum of $10 credit for (most) any Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, or PS4 game. Better yet, the offer allows up to five games per transaction. However, it has to be put toward the purchase of a new Xbox 360 or Xbox One game. (See image at bottom for full details.)
All this means that you can trade in five very out-of-date games for $50 toward a brand new title. Some of the ones I traded in were Bullet Witch, NHL 2K7, and King Kong — three titles that I’m sure I didn’t collectively pay $10 for and have had lying around for years. It’s unclear as to what games are accepted, but for some reason, Wal-Mart’s list of titles it’ll buy off customers seems to be accurate for Microsoft Store.
Because there’s the limitation of five games per customer, I brought my roommate along to trade in another five. The representative was completely fine with it as long as the games were in good condition with original boxes (as they were). After all ten games were appraised, I grabbed the two new ones I wanted. They came out to $100 (Shadow of Mordor‘s on sale for $40), and all I had to pay was sales tax.
Anyone that has to fly solo won’t come out quite as neatly as I did. A $60 game will usually end up being around $65 after sales tax. Still, $10-$15 for the season’s newest releases isn’t a bad deal at all — especially with the added bonus that you can get rid of at least five games you don’t want anymore at a surprisingly decent return.
As with any deal like this, your mileage may vary a bit. The promotion worked for me exactly as intended. However, after scouring the Internet for a bit, a few others had different results. One person reported being told that they could trade in five games, but each $10 credit had to be put toward the purchase of a different title. Another reported that the representative let them trade in as many games as they wanted and could use the credit toward anything in the store. Those are certainly the extreme ends of the spectrum.
Hopefully you can find some use out of this generous promotion. If you plan on checking it out, take note that it ends on Saturday January 3. And, in the event that you end up taking advantage of it, enjoy ringing in the new year with some seriously cheap new games.
