Checkpoint: GameDealsCanada 1 Year Anniversary Edition

It didn’t seem like a year has passed for this Twitter feed, but it has. Since May 1^st, 2009, I’ve learned quite a bit about Twitter and gaming deals.

Twitter is a powerful tool for disseminating info and with the likes of Hootsuite, it makes posting updates a breeze. With Hootsuite, I can URL shorten, schedule Tweets (important for those weekly ad cycles) and even save drafts of Tweets. It also has stat tracking so I can see how popular certain Tweets are. All of this on one tool? Thanks,  Hootsuite!

Over the course of the year, I’ve noticed and validated a number of Canadian gaming deal trends including the following:

• Ubisoft games drop in price very quickly – It’s almost never a good idea to buy an Ubisoft game on the first day since it’ll drop in price within weeks. And this is regardless of how well it does sales-wise. Assassin’s Creed II was $30 within a month of release!
• Electronic Arts and Microsoft come second on the game price drop rankings
• Nobody should ever need to pay full price for Xbox Live! Gold with the frequency of deals for 12 month cards; same goes with MS Point cards.
• Unofficial Microsoft Xbox 360 bundles are a lot more common thanks to the likes of BestBuy and FutureShop; they always throw in a free game (quality of the title may vary from time to time)
• GameStop/EB Games rarely have price promotions on new games, but they do have plenty of trade-in promotions. (I love the Power Trade promotions)
• Every major retailer who ships, has a free shipping option. GameStop’s (and I believe BestBuy’s) was a limited time offer at one point, but it has since become standard practice.

I noticed some of those trends before actively tracking deals, but it was nice to be sure.

Like I mentioned earlier, it didn’t feel like a year has gone by and with the ease and fun I’m having, I don’t think I’ll be quitting any time soon. Here’s to many more years of gaming deals!