Deals: New Best Buy Promotion Lets You Pick Up Free Nintendo Switch Games

It’s worth noting, this deal works for any game at any price (including sale and clearance games). And - they’ll still price match from other stores. I’ve preordered a handful of games between now and end of year using this deal and gotten free games that shipped right away. It’s an excellent way to reserve upcoming games, while giving yourself something to play for free while you wait. It also effectively makes all Nintendo games $40 a piece, when you buy the three at once.

As a side note - Best Buy members also get 15% off eshop cards. An amazing deal.

Lol, big time HELL no. All of these retailers tricking people into becoming members. The dark weave of profanity building in my mind's eye right now is staggering and I must leave.

Get this ad off of the news feed.

It probably shouldn't need to be said, but most people do not normally buy 3x $60 video games at a time. This is textbook retail manipulation to make you spend $170 when you were only planning on spending $60.

@N64-ROX
Yea, I hate coming to video game news and social sites that show me deal possibilities and options. So dumb.

This is probably a pass for me but may look into as I do want Mario Wonder, RPG, and MGS volume 1.

Will wait and see I guess.

All I got is a Walmart... ☠️

Charlie Brown: I got a rock...
From Halloween 🎃

@rallydefault maybe I'm just annoyed at the headline. "Free Nintendo Switch games!" Come on, it's just blatant advertising copy and I expect more from NL.

Does it work with digital codes? Can you buy 2 cheaper games then get a more expensive one as the freebie?

@shoeses Digital games, to my surprise, does work as well. Also, you get the cheaper game free.

So if I understand this right, you would have to buy 6+ games to see a real benefit. Assuming you are getting the $60 games you are only getting a net %20 off. 60*6 = 360 + 50= 410 - 120 = 290/ 360. I could see some specific scenarios where this would be tempting but for the average buyers there are equal or better deals that do not require this amount of money down at once.

@jkirchgessner07 Ah, so you can't say buy SnipperClippers and Kirby's Dream Buffet and get a full price game free. RIP.

@Darknilious If you are doing preorders (as I did), you only pay when an item ships. In other words, I was able to preorder Super Mario Wonder, Super Mario RPG, and Pikmin 4. Pikmin 4 was my free game. So I paid the membership fee now for $50, but won’t pay for anything else until Super Mario Wonder or Super Mario RPG ships.

For me, that made sense, because I was already planning to spend $60+tax to get Pikmin 4. I only had to pay $50 instead.

So I now have a membership with the ability to get more buy2, get 1free, which I’ve already taken advantage of for a a couple of additional preorders.

Obviously, this only makes sense if you are in a situation where you were already going to buy specific games. Not just spend money for the sake of a “deal”.

@shoeses Like most places, the freebie is only going to be the cheaper of the three. It wouldn’t make sense for a store to give away a $60 title to someone who only paid $35. But, in your situation, if you bought Snipperclips ($19.99) and Dream Buffet ($14.99), you could get a 3rd $14.99 game free. I just tested this and the discount applied to cart.

Kinda scummy masquerading this as news… Sorry, DEALS. When really it should be listed under Ads.

@N64-ROX yeah, but if i was gonna pick up mario wonder, mario rpg, and sonic superstars (which i totally am) this is really good to know

Wonder if you could ruin this by, getting 2 games preordered. And order a game that out now. Get the new game, then cancel the preorders. I mean then you just bought the game that was "free" but if it could be done over and over, then you really could get "free games"

Neat. I rarely buy enough games at once to make these deals worthwhile, but the more of them there are, the more they push each other to offer better deals to stand out.

I loved the old Best Buy membership program. Got tons of great deals b/c of it.

I've nearly stopped buying retail, but SM RPG has me thinking to buy at least that game retail - if I got Wonder that way too it would almost be worth it...?

I signed up for this the other day. 15% off eShop cards and the B2G1 free on several Switch games was too good to pass up.

I don’t know this isn’t much when you think about it. Especially if you have no need for the service. Getting something paid off, (not free) if you can drop 120+ on two new releases?

Sounds like a lot of hassle for 10 bucks.

@rallydefault
Ever heard of a kickback program? It’s basically where websites profit off of ad related purchases by partnerships with other websites.

Unrelated. Does NL have a lot of bots?

There are years where I buy 10 games and years where I buy nothing. This deal just isn't worth it for me. You really have to use it to take full advantage

@KnightofNi_ Out of curiosity, even with that being the case, is it really an issue for NL to do so? It’s a deal for the reader and it’s also a way to generate funds for the company. Both parties win. The fact that we are on this post solidifies that we use the NL site. Therefore, I see no issue helping them generate income for a service (gaming news site) I use and read daily.

As a once great philosopher said...."Save dat money!"

Is this for USA only? I don't see the membership in Canada.

@jkirchgessner07 Personally? Don’t really care either way. Just calling it as I see it. I don’t use NL solely for my big N news or reviews. I’ve yet to feel I owe them my money. I had no interest in the program as is. I know NL seems to do this often, like many; and I don’t view this as a deal at all. Just ad revenue. So really, just a “win” if we’re splitting hairs.

But the hustle isn’t lost on me. People need to eat. Nothing worth having is free. Just found it more akin to telling a GameStop employee 18 times i don’t need to protect my new release for 3 bucks, is all.

Would even guess I’ve generated them revenue in ways I’m not even aware of. Go figure.

In a way the first game you get for free is the 6th one. The third game is really the cost of the subscription.

So I assume this is only in the States. C'mon NL, show the Commonwealth some respect and let us Canadians know what the deal is.

Got Pikmin 4 for free. Sweet!

@TheBigK NL has the unfortunate fate of being based in the UK but covering Globally with a majority of their audience in the U.S....cut them some slack..?

Didn’t know about this deal. My parents are already members of my best buy total, and I was already planning on preordering a few games, might as well get pikmin 1+2 free!

@Bizzyb ohh don't double charge me

I see 9 games on their list that I was planning to buy anyway, so I think this makes sense for me. Thanks.

@Bizzyb I know I know, I'm just poking fun. Although reading my comment again, it really doesn't come off that way lol

Hehe cute. Advertisements disguised as articles.

Not interested in this but I’ve gotta say, Best Buy is the only physical store where I can sometimes find good deals. I’ll pop in when I’m in the area and have found games like hollow knight for $15, persona 5R and Mario party all stars for $30, etc. Good deals! There’s a gamestop next door and I’ve stopped even going in, there are never ever ever any switch games on sale

Every company's gotta have a subscription model nowadays. No thank you.

I would take advantage of this... if I had more than two games I want to get at a time.

@N64-ROX it’s worth noting that the release schedule of Nintendo’s games is staggered enough where taking advantage of this deal isn’t like getting three games at once at all.

This deal is crazy good. I’ve saved a ton of money. Huge recommendation from me.

@jkirchgessner07 It's always worth asking if there's a loophole.

Best buy knows Which company is going to sell the most physical copies in the future. They want to keep getting physical copies from Nintendo as long as they can cuz it helps their bottom line. The other companies are all going digital so doesn't help them out at all.

How much is Best Buy paying the NintendoLife staff to publish this "article"? The amount of people who aren't going out of their way to find three full retail games to buy at once are likely not many. Thus, like others have said, it easily turns into consumer manipulation.

Nothing is free. But if you’re buying loads of games you’ll get a bit of a discount.

@Doomcrow if you are buying games from Best Buy you are never getting the best price. So you are getting no discount ever. Instead, you are forcing yourself to buy more than you need/can ever play. It is beyond dumb.

I've already taken advantage of this deal extensively. I've preordered several game coming out, and it combines with other game sales. I have a problem buying games, but a permanent 33% off is nothing to scoff at (especially when I was going to buy some of them at full price).

Ok welp I will have to do this. That eshop credit is worth it.

Wait no. I am supposed to be on a budget. Maybe next year.

Not worth it for me since I rarely buy from this store. It's worth it if you exclusively buy several games from them though.

Weird, I bought the membership and when I try and check out with the bundle of 3 games it's trying to get me to buy the membership again, despite being signed in. Hate crap like that...

I think so yes. Same with the GameStop memberships.

"Buy 2, get a 3rd after buying a Best Buy membership".

There will be limits once ppl start exploiting this. Bet.

@N64-ROX it's more than that. The money you save for the "free game" is actually paying for the subscription fee which is conveniently absent from the click-bait title.

This is the scummiest move I've seen from Nintendo Life.

Thank you so much for this article. I just subscribed. Their web site about the membership doesn't mention this, and 1 of the 2 store employees I talked to about it were unaware of this benefit.

Sounds like a good deal. Would probably take advantage if I lived in the country!

@jkirchgessner07
So uh, I finally got to working on using the deal, and it only lists some 20 items or so it works with? Maybe more?
Uhm, did the deal end, or change, or was I mistaken about it?
I thought it was any switch game.

@Mariotag I just tried it with a handful of games right now and it still gave me the 3rd free. Are you in the US? Is your Best Buy membership showing as active?

@jkirchgessner07
That isn't the issue. The issue is moreso I thought it was any switch game from the early comments. But it seems it's only a handful.

Gotcha. That’s weird. Maybe it’s just what I’ve been buying, but I haven’t encountered a single game that hasn’t worked yet. Everything I’ve added to cart has worked - as long as it’s a physical switch game.