Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have been out for less than a month but the price for both games is already dropping across retailers, with Amazon possibly offering the best deal of all.
The newest generation of Pokemon games were released just last month but they're already having their prices slashed, with up to 20% off at some retailers. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet usually sport a price tag of £49.99, but you can get them for £39.99 at Amazon and Currys, and £39.85 at ShopTo.
While these are the lowest prices yet, it's worth noting that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have been sitting at a static £42 since Black Friday. So the discount isn't all that generous based on the already-reduced prices available elsewhere. But they're still the cheapest yet, and it's a double whammy considering that we rarely see discounts on Nintendo's staple series, let alone this soon after release.
- Buy Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at Amazon for £39.99
- Buy Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at Currys for £39.99
- Buy Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at ShopTo for £39.85
You'll miss out on Currys' free postage by one penny, and while ShopTo offers free standard postage, the Royal Mail strikes going on this week and in the run-up to Christmas could interfere with delivery. So if you're an Amazon Prime member, you've been dealt the best hand in terms of free, speedy postage, making it the cheapest of the three options when you take everything else into account! If you don't have an Amazon Prime subscription, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial.
Why so low?
The Pokemon Violet and Scarlet price drop we're seeing is a bit of a surprise, but maybe not so much when you take into account the reception the pair received post-launch. The games have set a sales record for Nintendo, with a combined 10 million units sold in the three days following their release.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is now the fastest-selling Pokemon game ever, the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game ever, the fastest-selling Nintendo game ever, and the fastest console-exclusive game ever – that goes for Xbox and PlayStation. And let's not forget that Sony just set a record with God of War Ragnarok's week one sales of 5.1 million units, that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has dwarfed.
But the fans may have been a bit overeager, and the launch was soon overshadowed with swarms of reports about poor performance, game-breaking bugs, and complaints about the lacklustre graphics and bland environments. There isn't much to be done on the game design front – Game Freak will just have to take on board the criticism for next time – but the performance and bugs are at least getting addressed.
Nintendo ended up apologising for the fiasco and released an update at the beginning of the month to help smooth things out. Although, frustratingly, the patch notes were incredibly vague, citing "other select bugs" had been fixed alongside two specific ones.
On a more positive note, it has committed to "working on improvements" so if you want to hop into the game while it's still relatively new – in spite of the stink around it – the price cut is as good an excuse as any!
