Updated 10pm: Play have now returned the price of their Xbox 360 Elite bundle to £189.99. The deal was only on their site for 12 hours, in total.

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Today is the last day of the Play.com “£5 off orders over £50″ voucher. The voucher code is PLANW09.

The code works with all consoles and games for any platform (including the PC). It will not work with products in the Electronics, PC (software and hardware) or Mobile categories.

The last day of the voucher code  coincides with the Play.com Monday Madness sale we mentioned yesterday. There are several nice discounts to be found, including a significantly reduced price on Play.com’s main Xbox 360 Elite bundle.

Be sure to browse through the various available deals to pick out anything of interest to you.

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.

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

This post is now out of date. Please refer to our updated article on the Best Xbox 360 Bundle Deals.

Link to new article.

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

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.

If you already know which console you’re after, read on.

First off, most places will offer you a “Xbox 360 + a cheap game” bundle. If you are just looking for the console and a cheap game of your choice, the best place is Amazon. They offer the cheapest Xbox 360 console prices already, and you can add an extra game for £10. Other stores have similar deals, but Amazon seem to offer the best selection and prices. The link to the deal is here, and the discount code you use is here.

Amazon.co.uk : Buy a console and get a game for £10 extra

If you’re after more than that (recommended), we’ve identified the best bundle deals for the Xbox 360 Premium, Xbox 360 Arcade, and Xbox 360 Elite.

Xbox 360 Premium Bundles

The Premium has the most options for bundle deals. The best two currently available are:

Limited Edition Gears of War Xbox 360 60GB Premium Pack with Fallout 3, Gears of War, Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) £199.99 – Gamestation

This is a fantastic bargain from Gamestation. You get the Premium console and three of the best Xbox 360 games for £199.99. If I didn’t already own an Xbox 360, this is the bundle I’d buy. You can also get a similar bundle with Fifa 09 rather than Fallout 3.

Xbox 360 Premium Console + Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 + Lego Indiana Jones + Kung Fu Panda + Extra Controller £209.99 - Play.com

Available from Play.com, this is the best family-orientated bundle deal on the market. Especially good if you’re a parent buying for younger children. While the games aren’t to my taste (I’m not a kid anymore and I don’t like football games), the deal is fantastic value for money.

Xbox 360 Arcade Bundles

Xbox 360 Arcade Pack with Kung Fu Panda, LEGO Indiana Jones and an Extra Wireless Controller (Xbox 360) £159.99 – GAME

Similar to the Play.com deal, this GAME bundle comes without the football game and with the Arcade console. As mentioned above, I don’t recommend buying the Arcade console over the Premium, but this bundle is best available if you’re on a tight budget.

Xbox 360 Arcade at cheap price + extra game for £10

This is the ultimate budget choice, with the best deals available from Amazon, as mentioned above. However, if you’re after the new Fallout 3 game you’ll need to go to GAME (link is here).

Xbox 360 Elite Bundles

There are several good Elite bundles out there. Your decision here will largely be based on which games you prefer.

Play.com has a good Elite bundle that includes Fallout 3 and Fable 2 for £249.99.

If you’re not after those two games, the shop with the best selection of Xbox 360 Elite bundles is Gamestation (click here for their complete list). Their prices for Elite bundles are the best of any store in the market. We haven’t listed them here because they just have so many!

Just the Console Please

If you’re after just the console, with no extra games (important: it’s much better price-wise to go for a bundle deal), get a full price comparison through the links below:

Xbox 360 Arcade / Core
Xbox 360 Premium
Xbox 360 Elite

While the Xbox 360 is an excellent games console, Microsoft have created a confusing situation by releasing many different versions of their popular console. This article aims to explain the differences between the models currently on the market.

The current versions of the Xbox 360 on the market are the Arcade, Premium, and Elite. Strangely enough, all three are entirely the same apart from two major factors; the hard disk and the colour.

Crucially, the Xbox 360 Arcade (previously known as the Xbox 360 Core) comes with no hard disk. The only option for storage is to buy memory sticks (expensive) or a special external hard disk (VERY expensive).

Even if you’re really short on money, you’ll want to stretch to buy the Xbox 360 Premium, which comes with a 60GB hard disk. An Xbox 360 without a hard disk may not be able to play some games, does not allow Xbox (original) backwards compatibility, will have difficulty accessing online content and Xbox Live, and can be more expensive in the long run from buying the proprietary memory sticks.

On the other end of the scale, the Xbox 360 Premium is still the recommended choice even if you have a lot of money. The 120GB hard disk on the Xbox 360 Elite is complete overkill. The 60GB hard disk in the Premium is not large in PC terms, but for a console is more than you’ll ever need. This means the only good reason to get the Xbox 360 Elite is if you really want your console in black (and it does look very good in black).

Apart from the colour and the hard disk, all three versions of the Xbox 360 are entirely the same. The Xbox 360 Premium is the recommended model to buy.

The Xbox 360 Arcade (previously the Xbox 360 Core) is severely limited due its lack of a hard disk. The Xbox 360 Elite is great, but its only advantages are one free month of Xbox Live, a larger hard disk, and that it comes in black.

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Check out our article on the best Xbox 360 bundle deals.

Or compare prices for the Xbox 360 Arcade, Xbox 360 Premium, or Xbox 360 Elite.