We’ve had a couple of people contacting us who have had problems getting the Amazon Xbox 360 bundle to work.

First, to reiterate, the bundle is available and it does work as described.

After a few email exchanges, people seem to have one of two common problems:

* Trying to add Xbox 360 games not covered by the Amazon Xbox 360 bundle deal (this is fine, just don’t expect them to be discounted!).

* Looking in their “Basket” and assuming the discount hasn’t been applied. With Amazon, their discounts are only ever applied toward the end of the checkout process.

Our advice for people having trouble is, firstly, to follow the following instructions carefully:

1) Go to the Amazon Xbox 360 Elite or Amazon Xbox 360 Arcade bundle deal page.

2) To get the “three games and an extra controller for free” offer, add an Xbox 360 console, Wireless Entertainment Pack and one other item to your basket. The Wireless Entertainment Pack contains two games and a controller, so in total you’re getting three games and an extra controller.

3) Once you’ve added the qualifying items to your Basket, go to your Basket and check to make sure you haven’t accidentally ordered more than 1 of each item. Note that the discount will not be shown at this stage.

4) All done! Go through the checkout process, and the full discount and correct price will be shown towards the later stages!

If you still have problems after following these steps, please get in contact!

Amazon have just dropped the price of their Xbox 360 Elite bundle deal by £10, bringing it to the lowest price we’ve seen this Christmas season. Anyone holding off buying an Xbox 360 Elite waiting for a Christmas price drop may want to consider this.

The Amazon price drop is perhaps in response to a new Comet deal which offers an Xbox 360 Eite, four games, and an extra controller for £189. The advantage Amazon has over the Comet deal is that of choice; Comet’s games are all pre-selected, whereas Amazon allows customers to select the games they want.

We’ve also added a new guide on Xbox 360 Internet Accessories and Xbox Live, which aims to go through some common questions about getting a new Xbox 360 online and connecting to Xbox Live.

There have been a lot of recent reports on gaming forums from people who have had problems after buying used Xbox 360 consoles.  While pre-owned consoles purchased from mainstream retailers should be immune to this problem, a lot of people who purchased console from sites such as Ebay and Craigslist  have ended up with consoles that have been modded or chipped by their previous owners.

See this Wikipedia article on modchips for those unfamiliar with the term.

A modded or chipped Xbox 360 console will not be able to access Xbox Live. Microsoft can detect if the console has been tampered with, and bans the console itself from accessing their online service. Microsoft have recently banned a large number of consoles to coincide with the release of Modern Warfare 2. See this recent BBC News article for more details.

With a large number of users recently banned by Microsoft, we may see a large increase of banned consoles coming onto the second-hand market. People affected generally try to offload their console and transfer their hard disk into a new console.

Banned consoles will be able to play single player games well enough, but will not have access to any online services, including online multiplayer.

We don’t want to put off any people who are able to make a large saving by buying used Xbox 360 consoles, but we thought it would be worth flagging up the problem to those who might not be aware of the issue.

We’d be very interested in hearing from people who have had experiences with pre-owned consoles, both good and bad. If you have been affected, please leave a comment!

Update (November 16th): You can now ignore this post. Amazon have exhausted their stocks of the Xbox 360 Arcade with Sega Superstars Tennis, and are now selling their bundles with just the Xbox 360 Arcade console.

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Amazon appear to be featuring the wrong Xbox 360 Arcade console on their Xbox 360 Arcade bundle deals page.

The correct console, which is featured in their bundle deal and was on the page until yesterday, is the Xbox 360 Arcade with Sega Superstars Tennis.

Whereas the Arcade console they now show on the bundles page is one they they don’t have stock of.  Not sure what’s going on there…

To get the Amazon Xbox 360 Arcade bundle deal:

1) Add the Xbox 360 Arcade with Sega Superstars Tennis to your basket.

2) Add one of the items from the Amazon Xbox 360 Arcade Bundle Deals page to your basket as normal.

Hope this helps!

Update: We checked this deal today (13th November) at 11:00am and it appears to have been discontinued. It may still be worth trying on the off-chance that there is a glitch on our end, but we currently assume that Amazon have ended the deal.

If you can still get the deal to work, let us know!

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Amazon seem to offer a discount on Modern Warfare 2 that is not marked on their website. This deal was previously advertised on Amazon’s site on November 9th to 10th, but they removed all mention of it recently.

However, it seems possible (at least for us and several others) to still get the deal!

The deal allows you get to get an Xbox 360 for £189.99, add two items for £10 only extra, and then add Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for only £10 extra (£209.99 total).

To take advantage of this bundle deal:

1) Go the the standard Amazon Xbox 360 Elite special offer page.

2) Add the Xbox 360 Elite and two of the items shown to your basket. Don’t include Wolfenstein. One of the two items you can include is the Wireless Entertainment pack, which includes two games and a controller.

3) Go to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 page and add it to your basket.

4) Go through the checkout process. Make sure you have the correct items and in the right quantities.

5) The final price (not including delivery) should come out as £209.99. This offers a huge saving of up to £130 compared to buying these items separately.

If this doesn’t work for you, be sure to send us a message. If this does work for you, also be sure to send us a message!

We’ve had a report that the current Amazon Xbox 360 bundle deal isn’t correctly discounting the game Wolfenstein. All other games we’ve tested appear to be discounted correctly, but when Wolfenstein is included the deal doesn’t include the correct discount.

Until Amazon resolve the issue, we’d suggest choosing games other than Wolfenstein when making a purchase. Suitable replacements (which have received better reviews) are either Halo 3: ODST or Borderlands.

When writing the latest Xbox 360 bundle deals guide, Argos posed a small problem. It had a couple of special offers on that worked out slightly cheaper than the Amazon deal, but only if you get two specific combinations.

Rather than trying to explain the exact combinations in the main guide, we’ve put it here for those who are really dedicated to saving the extra few pounds.

So, without further ado.

* Argos: Xbox 360 Premium Console + Free Wireless Controller + Resident Evil 5: £166.39
* Argos: Xbox 360 Elite Console + Free Wireless Controller + Resident Evil 5: £224.59

Both of these offers are listed under “Special Offer 1″ on the relevant pages.

These deals work out several pounds cheaper than the same combinations from Amazon. However, depending on what you go on to buy (if you get other, non-bundled items with your console) one retailer or the other may end up being cheaper.

Updated December 30th, 2008.

Quick links to:

Xbox 360 Arcade Bundle Deals
Xbox 360 Premium Bundle Deals
Xbox 360 Elite Bundle Deals

We’ve compared all the Xbox 360 offers and bundle deals from Amazon, Argos, Comet, Currys, GAME, Gameplay, Gamestation, HMV, John Lewis, Play.com, and Tesco.

The bundle deals available for the Xbox 360 have changed significantly since our last post. Some have gone out of stock, some have improved, and some have improved a LOT.

Before we start, are you unsure of the differences between the three versions of the Xbox 360 console (the Arcade, Premium, and Elite)? If so, read our full article of the differences between the Xbox 360 Arcade, Premium, and Elite.

Best Xbox 360 Arcade Bundles

One bundle deal from Amazon stands out from the rest at the moment. A number of competing deals have either been discontinued or gone out of stock.

Despite that, there are other competing offers that may be better for people looking for particular games. Be sure to read this entire section of the article before making any decision.

Details of the Amazon deal are:

Amazon – Buy an Xbox 360 Arcade
+ add a selected game for £10 extra

Amazon’s game selection includes Halo 3, Fallout 3, and 15 other games. If you’re after a particular game, this deal will usually be better on price than other providers. It can also be combined with Amazon’s second bundle deal, which allows you to add two games and a controller for only £20 extra.

GAME has an excellent offer if you’re only after FIFA 2009:

GAME – Xbox 360 Arcade
+ FIFA 2009
for £128.49

Other offers may be better if you’re looking for extra items (e.g. an extra controller), but this is the best deal for just this game.

Another good deal comes from Currys, which offers:

Xbox 360 Arcade
+ Halo 3
from Currys : £127.22

Halo 3 is an excellent game, and is essentially included for free with the console purchase.

We’ll update this guide whenever new deals become available.

Best Xbox 360 Premium Bundles

There are two bundle deals that lead the market at the moment. The first comes from Amazon:

Amazon – Buy an Xbox 360 Premium
+ add a selected game for £10 extra

Amazon’s game selection includes FIFA 09, Halo 3, Fallout 3, and 14 other games. If you’re after a particular game, this deal will usually be better on price than other providers. It can also be combined with Amazon’s second bundle deal, which allows you to add two games and a controller for only £20 extra.

The second leading bundle deal comes from GAME:

Xbox 360 Premium
+ Kung Fu Panda
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Lost – the Game
+ Extra Wireless Controller
for £168.49

If you’re not picky about what games you’re after, this is an excellent Xbox 360 starter pack. However, if you’re after another game in addition to this, Amazon’s deal may turn out to be better on price.

GAME has an excellent offer if you’re only after FIFA 2009:

GAME – Xbox 360 Premium
+ FIFA 2009
for £168.49

Other offers may be better if you’re looking for extra items (e.g. an extra controller), but this is the best deal for just this game.

Currys also has a couple of good deals for the Premium (note: these links go to the Xbox 360 index page. The two deals mentioned are in the middle of page 2).

Xbox 360 Premium
+ Fable 2
+ Gears of War 2
from Currys : £204.54

and

Xbox 360 Premium
+ Halo 3
from Currys : £166.36

Both of these deals are excellent value for money. If you’re looking for additional items though, other deals may turn out to be better.

As always, if there are any bundles we should be including, please contact us immediately!

Best Xbox 360 Elite Bundles

The Elite has fewer bundles than the other two Xbox 360 consoles. Amazon, though, has two very good bundles, which can be combined:

Amazon – Xbox 360 Elite
+ Extra Wireless Controller
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Kung Fu Panda
+ select a game
for £239.99

Amazon’s game selection for this bundle includes FIFA 09, Halo 3, Fallout 3, and 14 other games. There are a number of retailers which offer similar deals, but don’t include the option of selecting the extra game.

Another leading bundle deal for the Elite comes from GAME:

Xbox 360 Elite
+ Kung Fu Panda
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Lost – the Game
+ Extra Wireless Controller
for £228.49

If you’re not picky about what games you’re after, this is an excellent deal for the Xbox 360 Elite. However, if you’re after another game in addition to this, Amazon’s deal may turn out to be better on price.

There are several retailers with good bundle prices for particular games. Two of the best examples are Play.com with Gears of War 2 and Currys with Call of Duty: World at War.

Xbox 360 Elite
+ Call of Duty – World at War
from Currys : £225.09

These deals are both good if you’re after those particular games. As we’ve mentioned before, other deals may become better if you decide to add items to the bundles (e.g. an extra controller).

Runners-Up

In this section there are links to all the bundle deals we compared while researching this article. Please contact us if there’s anything we’ve missed!

Amazon : All in-stock bundle deals

Argos : (warning – confusing website!) All bundle deals – click on console then “Special Offers”

Comet : All bundle deals

Currys : All bundle deals, listed by price

Play.com : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

GAME : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

Gameplay : All bundle deals

Gamestation : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

HMV : All bundle deals

John Lewis : All bundle deals

ASDA, Tesco, theHut, Woolworths, Zavvi : No bundle deals available

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Thanks for taking the time to read our guide to the best Xbox 360 bundle deals this Christmas! To view our product pages for each console, please follow the links below:

Xbox 360 Arcade / Core Console
Xbox 360 Premium Console
Xbox 360 Elite Console

This guide is now outdated. Please refer to our new guide on the best Xbox 360 bundle deals this Christmas.

Buying an Xbox 360 this Christmas? We’ve compared all the Xbox 360 offers and bundle deals from Amazon, Argos, Comet, Currys, GAME, Gameplay, Gamestation, HMV, John Lewis, Play.com, Tesco, theHut, Woolworths, and Zavvi.

The bundle deals available for the Xbox 360 have changed significantly since our last post. Some have gone out of stock, some have improved, and some have improved a LOT.

Before we start, are you unsure of the differences between the three versions of the Xbox 360 console (the Arcade, Premium, and Elite)? If so, read our full article of the differences between the Xbox 360 Arcade, Premium, and Elite.

Best Xbox 360 Arcade Bundles

There are a number of excellent bundle deals available for the Xbox 360 Arcade. With the Arcade now back in stock at Amazon (as of December 7th), it regains its number 1 spot (just) due to its combination of value and choice

Amazon has three bundle deals available for the Xbox 360 Arcade. All three offers can be combined:

Buy the Xbox 360 Arcade, and get
+ Extra Wireless Controller
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Kung Fu Panda
for £20 extra

This is very good value for money, and cheaper than buying an extra controller on its own (which normally costs about £26). The second deal is:

Buy any Xbox Console, and
+ add a selected game for £10 extra

and finally

Buy the Xbox 360 Arcade, and
+ get a free HDMI cable

Depending on what games you’re after, the above deals are better value than anything else on the market.

Argos also have an excellent Arcade bundle deal on their site, which they’ve dubbed “Special Offer 5″:

Xbox 360 Arcade
+ Kung Fu Panda
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Sega Superstars Tennis
+ Project Gotham Racing 4
+ Extra Controller
from Argos : £147.28

This almost perfectly replicates an Amazon offer that recently went out of stock. The only problem comes from Argos’ fiddly website.

To access the bundle, go through this link. Then click “Special Offers”, then “Offer 5″, and tick the two extra items. Finally, scroll back to the top of that page to either order, check stock, or reserve at your local store.

With GAME going out of stock on some of their best bundle deals, there aren’t too many other options on the market. One good deal comes from Currys, which offers:

Xbox 360 Arcade
+ Halo 3
from Currys : £127.22

Halo 3 is an excellent game, and is included for free with the console.

If you’re really set on one particular game, it’s worth checking out GAME’s full list of Xbox 360 bundle deals. They’ve got a number of bundles where you can get good discounts on individual games. This is especially important close to Christmas, as some games will be out of stock at Amazon due to their popularity.

We’ll update this guide whenever new deals become available. For now, it’s one of the consoles with the least bundle options available (five retailers have sold out entirely).

Best Xbox 360 Premium Bundles

Despite going out of stock on one of their previous bundle deals, Amazon still leads the field for the best all-round Premium bundle deals this Christmas. The difference between Amazon and other retailers is a lot closer than it was even a week ago, however.

Amazon has three bundle deals available for the Xbox 360 Premium. All three offers can be combined:

Buy the Xbox 360 Premium, and get
+ Extra Wireless Controller
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Kung Fu Panda
for £20 extra

This is excellent value for money, and cheaper than buying an extra controller on its own (which normally costs about £26). The second deal is:

Buy any Xbox Console, and
+ add a selected game for £10 extra

and finally

Buy the Xbox Premium, and
+ get a free HDMI cable

Depending on what games you’re after, the above deals are better value than anything else on the market. We’ve picked out a few deals below that are better for people hunting particular games this Christmas:

Two deals from GAME we previously listed here (a five-game bundle and a two-game bundle) have just gone out of stock. We’ll update this article if the offers reappear.

Argos have an excellent bundle deal on their site, which they’ve dubbed “Special Offer 6″:

Xbox 360 Premium
+ Kung Fu Panda
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Sega Superstars Tennis
+ Project Gotham Racing 4
+ Extra Controller
from Argos : £189.99

This perfectly replicates an Amazon offer that recently went out of stock. The only problem comes from Argos’ fiddly website.

To access the bundle, go through this link. Then click “Special Offers”, then “Offer 6″, and tick the two extra items. Finally, scroll back to the top of that page to order, check stock, or reserve at your local store.

Currys has a couple of good deals for the Premium (note: these links go to the Xbox 360 index page. The two deals mentioned are in the middle of page 2).

Xbox 360 Premium
+ Fable 2
+ Gears of War 2
from Currys : £204.54

and

Xbox 360 Premium
+ Halo 3
from Currys : £166.36

If you’re really set on one particular game, it’s worth checking out GAME’s full list of Xbox 360 bundle deals. They’ve got a number of bundles where you can get good discounts on individual games. This is especially important close to Christmas, as some games will be out of stock at Amazon due to their popularity.

As always, if there are any bundles we should be including, please contact us immediately!

Best Xbox 360 Elite Bundles

The Amazon deal is still the top choice for the Xbox 360 Elite due to its flexibility and selection. However, do look at the other recommended bundles included in this list. Other retailers now offer better deals on some of the most popular games his Christmas.

Amazon has two bundle deals available that apply to the Elite, both of which can be combined:

Buy the Xbox 360 Elite, and get
+ Extra Wireless Controller
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Kung Fu Panda
for £20 extra

This is excellent value for money, and cheaper than buying an extra controller on its own. The second deal is:

Buy the Xbox 360 Elite, and
+ add a selected game for £10 extra

Depending on what games you’re after, the above deals are better value than anything else on the market. We’ve picked out a couple of deals below that are better for people after particular games this Christmas.

Currys has a good deal for the Elite (note: this link goes to the Xbox 360 index page. The deal itself is at the bottom of page 2).

Xbox 360 Elite
+ Call of Duty – World at War
from Currys : £225.09

As with the Premium and Arcade, GAME previously had a number of good bundle deals for the Elite that have now gone out of stock. We’ll update this guide if the deals return.

Argos have a very good Elite bundle deal on their site, which they’ve dubbed “Special Offer 5″:

Xbox 360 Elite
+ Kung Fu Panda
+ Lego Indiana Jones
+ Sega Superstars Tennis
+ Project Gotham Racing 4
+ Extra Controller
from Argos : £249.99

This almost perfectly replicates an Amazon offer that recently went out of stock. The only problem comes from Argos’ fiddly website.

To access the bundle, go through this link. Then click “Special Offers”, then “Offer 5″, and tick the two extra items. Finally, scroll back to the top of that page to order, check stock, or reserve at your local store.

However, if you’re really set on one particular game, it’s still worth checking out GAME’s full list of Xbox 360 bundle deals. They’ve got a number of bundles where you can get good discounts on individual games. This is especially important close to Christmas, as some games will be out of stock at Amazon due to their popularity.

Runners-Up

In this section there are links to all the bundle deals we compared while researching this article. Please contact us if there’s anything we’ve missed!

Amazon : All in-stock bundle deals

Argos : (warning – confusing website!) All bundle deals – click on console then “Special Offers”

Comet : All bundle deals

Currys : All bundle deals, listed by price

Play.com : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

GAME : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

Gameplay : All bundle deals

Gamestation : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

HMV : All bundle deals

John Lewis : All bundle deals

ASDA, Tesco, theHut, Woolworths, Zavvi : No bundle deals available

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Thanks for taking the time to read our guide to the best Xbox 360 bundle deals this Christmas! To view our product pages for each console, please follow the links below:

Xbox 360 Arcade / Core Console
Xbox 360 Premium Console
Xbox 360 Elite Console

Updated December 2nd, 2008.

Important note: This guide is now out of date. The selection of bundle deals for the Xbox 360 has changed significantly from the 2nd to the 3rd of December. Please go to our new article on the Best Xbox 360 Bundle Deals, which is up-to-date.

Buying an Xbox 360 this Christmas? We’ve compared all the Xbox 360 offers and bundle deals from Amazon, Play.com, GAME, John Lewis, Currys, Argos, HMV, Comet, Zavvi, Woolworths, theHut, Tesco, Gamestation, and Gameplay.

The bundle deals available for the Xbox 360 have changed significantly since our last post. Some have gone out of stock, some have improved, and some have improved a LOT.

Before we start, are you unsure of the differences between the three versions of the Xbox 360 console (the Arcade, Premium, and Elite)? If so, read our full article of the differences between the Xbox 360 Arcade, Premium, and Elite.

The Best Bundles

Since our last post, Amazon has significantly improved their Xbox 360 bundle deals. There are now three deals, and some of them can be combined. A good explanation of how it works is on their site, but we have a summary below:

Deal 1 – Buy any Xbox Console and get Kung Fu Panda, Lego Indiana Jones, and an Extra Wireless Controller for £20 extra

Deal 2 – Buy any Xbox Console and get Sega Superstar Tennis and Project Gotham Racing 4 free

Deal 3 – Buy any Xbox Console and get a selected game (includes Fable 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, FIFA 09, and others) for £10 extra

You can combine deals 1 and 2, or deals 1 and 3. Either way, they’re great value for money. Deal 3 also has an excellent selection of discounted games. Some other retailers do offer similar deals to these in isolation, but don’t let you combine them. So until other retailers improve their own deals in response, we recommend Amazon.

There are a couple of deals that can compete with this. One Gamestation deal that we mentioned in our last post is currently out-of-stock (we’ll update if it comes back). GAME also offers:

GAME – Xbox 360 Premium with Gears of War, Gears of War 2, and Far Cry 2 for £185.95

If you’re after this particular set of games (and all three are excellent), then this is the best price on the market.

Play.com also have some very good deals if you’re after Pro Evolution Soccer 2009.

Another popular game this Christmas is FIFA 09. Unfortunately, we can’t find any (in-stock) bundle deals that offer FIFA 09 at a discount. We’ll update as soon as this changes. Most retailers still have FIFA 09 in-stock, however.

Another good bundle was available from Woolworths. Unfortunately, as of 26th November 2008, Woolworths has been put into administration. Until their situation becomes clearer, we’re leaving it out of this guide.

Comet previously had an offer that was competitive with Amazon on price, but they withdrew it late Friday evening. We’ll update this post if the deal returns.

The Runners Up

The other retailers we compared (Zavvi, HMV, Play.com, GAME, Gameplay, Tesco, ASDA, theHut, Gamestation) all offer deals that are more expensive or offer fewer options than those above.

The only reason you might look elsewhere is if you’re looking for a game that isn’t included in Amazon’s £10 deal (Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2 being two examples). Even then, it may be difficult to find a bundle that offers better value, as £20 gets you four games + an extra controller from Amazon.

One important thing to note: we can’t find ANY bundles that contain Call of Duty 5 : World at War. We’ll update as soon as anything becomes available.

To have a look at what’s available, below are links to all the bundle deals we’ve compared while writing this article. Please contact us immediately if you feel there’s something we’ve missed:

Amazon : Two games free, or four games + controller for £20 extra, or three games (one selected) + controller for £30 extra

Play.com : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

Gamestation : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

Gameplay : All bundle deals

Zavvi : No bundle deals available

GAME : All in-stock bundle deals, listed by price

ASDA : No bundle deals available

HMV : All bundle deals

Comet : All bundle deals

Tesco : No bundle deals available

Argos : (warning – confusing website!) All bundle deals – click on console then “Special Offers”

theHut : No bundle deals available

Woolworths : Woolworths is now in administration.

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Thanks for taking the time to read our guide to the best Xbox 360 bundle deals this Christmas! To view our product pages for each console, please follow the links below:

Xbox 360 Arcade / Core Console
Xbox 360 Premium Console
Xbox 360 Elite Console