Microsoft Announces Its Biggest-Ever Xbox Sale

Just when you thought you’d seen the end of Microsoft’s holiday sales, the software giant announces Countdown, which it bills as its biggest Xbox Store sale ever.

“Starting December 22, Xbox fans can take advantage of Xbox Store’s biggest sale ever, Countdown,” Microsoft’s Will Tuttle writes. “We’ll be counting down to the new year and continuing great deals through January 9. The sale offers 19 days of deals on hundreds of games, movies & TV shows, music and apps, including daily and weekly offers.”

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So, let’s see. December 22 is Thursday. And January 9 is a Monday about two and a half weeks later. So this is a pretty big sale, if only from a length of time perspective. And it’s not just games, though games—and other Xbox goodies—are obviously a big part of it.

Details are vague right now, but here’s what Microsoft says we can expect:

Xbox One and Xbox 360 games. Countdown includes deals for both Xbox One and Xbox 360, with savings of up to 60 percent off. This will include some top games too, like Final Fantasy XV, Battlefield 1, and Watch Dogs 2, among others, as well as over 40 backward compatible Xbox 360 titles on sale.

Xbox Live Gold. During Countdown, you can get one month of Xbox Live Gold for just $1. And All Countdown purchases will be an additional 10 percent off for Xbox Live Gold members.

Movies and TV shows. Microsoft will offer “hundreds” of deals on TV shows, TV show seasons, and movies. TV favorites will be 50 percent off, TV seasons up to 33 percent off, and movies will be $9.99 and up.

Groove Music Pass. No, this is not the sale you were hoping for, but anyone who tries Groove Music Pass for one month (for free) will get another three months for free too.

I’m curious to see what this looks like. But we’ll know more soon.

 

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Conversation 12 comments

  • 8179

    19 December, 2016 - 3:46 pm

    <p>So – when XBLive is on sale like this – can you buy it while it’s on sale and add it to the time left on your current XBLive?</p>

    • 5510

      19 December, 2016 - 3:58 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="../../users/Mcgillivray">Mcgillivray</a><a href="#31181"> Posted</a></em><br />
      <p>So – when XBLive is on sale like this – can you buy it while it’s on sale and add it to the time left on your current XBLive?</p>
      </blockquote>
      <p>Unless they changed the policy, yes, you can. I did that for 3 years, starting in 2010, where I kept "stacking" Xbox Live Gold memberships, back when one year cost only$29</p>

    • 486

      Premium Member
      19 December, 2016 - 4:20 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#31181">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/Mcgillivray">Mcgillivray</a><a href="#31181">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Unfortunately, the wording in Major Nelson’s post says the first month. I’m guessing that doesn’t count for current Xbox Live Gold members.</p>

      • 6978

        19 December, 2016 - 11:59 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#31184">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/Care">Care</a><a href="#31184">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>I would expect the same thing. I bought an XBox One S during their post-Black Friday sale and it came with "First month" free code, but I couldn’t apply it to my account because I was a current XBox Live Gold subscriber</p>

  • 5510

    19 December, 2016 - 4:01 pm

    <p>When someone says to me "Big Sale" it always refers to products being drastically reduced. Here, when Paul says "Big Sale" it’s the time of length.&nbsp;</p>

    • 820

      Premium Member
      20 December, 2016 - 10:37 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#31183">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/Bats">Bats</a><a href="#31183">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Agreed, this has a weird title.</p>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>

  • 9201

    19 December, 2016 - 5:29 pm

    <p>Let me guess this is "US only" offer right ?</p>
    <p>Excuse me for being rather jaded by these so called offers, when they are typically not global offers.</p>

    • 9077

      19 December, 2016 - 7:43 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#31186">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/Jules_Wombat">Jules_Wombat</a><a href="#31186">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>So move to the U.S.</p>

  • 5593

    19 December, 2016 - 6:42 pm

    <p>Well, I already have Xbox Live Gold and Groove Music Pass,&nbsp;both of which are mostly of no value to us since we don’t do console gaming and we access our entire music library from OneDrive (I almost never use the streaming capability&nbsp;from the&nbsp;Groove store).&nbsp; We buy our movies outright, so we don’t use Movies&nbsp;and TV shows.&nbsp; We’ve ditched the Xbox One since the Kinect got gutted and the dashboard was ruined and we can now access Netflix and Hulu from apps on our&nbsp;smart TV.&nbsp; I was really hoping&nbsp;that at some point Microsoft would FINALLY announce a family plan for their services.&nbsp; I guess this isn’t the year.</p>

  • 6978

    19 December, 2016 - 11:57 pm

    <p>When they say "XBox One" I wonder if they mean just the older and still supported XBox One, OR if this includes the XBox One-S with 4k? If it’s the latter and there’s an even BETTER deal on an "S" version, I might return it and buy it again at an even cheaper price Lol</p>

    • 6978

      20 December, 2016 - 12:06 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#31209">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/eq07">eq07</a><a href="#31209">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Replying to myself lol — I just saw a previous post that listed this:</p>
      <p><em>Save $50 on Xbox One S consoles, plus get a free $30 gift code and select game. Starting at $249</em></p>
      <p>I bought my One S after their post Black Friday sale for $249 with two free games. It basically evens out to the same deal. Darn, I was hoping to get at least $50-$75 back returning and buying it again at an even lower price :-D</p>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>

  • 940

    20 December, 2016 - 7:21 am

    <p>They are hell-bent on&nbsp;beating Playstation sales this holiday season.</p>

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