EA Sports and 2K Both Giving 50% Discounts for Black Friday

Hope everyone who celebrates in the states had a dope Thanksgiving. Today’s newsletter is what you would expect, me telling you where to get some sports games on sale with just a sprinkling of news mixed in along the way.

Since it’s a holiday week, this will be a short one, so let’s jump right into things.

For those who want to read any premium newsletters, you can do so with the free trial, no matter whether you have done the 30-day free trial in the past or not. I dedicated the whole month of November to the Xbox 360 sports game launch lineup, so if you’re into that, subscribe now. I covered NBA Live 06, FIFA 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, Madden 06, NBA 2K6, and NHL 2K6.

If you want to hang with your fellow OSers, here’s your weekly reminder to also join the OS Discord if you want to chat with me or others from the community. If you sign-up for the premium newsletter, send a direct message to either Rob S (thekernelpop) or ChaseB (chucklesbiscotti) on Discord, and either one of us will add you to the extra Supporters area on Discord, and we have a snazzy role and badge to give you on there, too.

We also now have an official OS app! You can download it now on Google Play and iOS. We just put out a new update this week, so if you have trouble loading the app after previously downloading it (especially on iOS) delete it and then re-download the app.

EA Buyout Remains A Little Sketchy

The biggest news this week comes from the New York Times reporting that Saudia Arabia’s PIF (public investment fund) is running “low” on cash after the $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts.

The scarcity of available funds is not just because of the EA buyout (the PIF is counted with trillions not billions, after all), but rather the EA acquisition is more the culmination of a spending spree that is seemingly coming to an end.

Now, how much is posturing by Saudia Arabia or factual in terms of the health of the PIF is almost irrelevant. Whether this is their way of signaling they’re not interested in anymore acquisitions for the foreseeable future or a more dire warning is not for me to decide, but both outcomes have about the same effect in my eyes. One way or another, they are saying they’re tightening the belt in the near term, which brings into question how much internal investment and risk they’ll be taking on with their current projects.

I don’t think this means “get ready for more loot boxes in your EA games!” but based on this news, I do wonder how much leeway EA will get to try anything new or risky.

EA is profitable as of today, so it’s already going to be a better value than much of what Saudia Arabia has bought or invested in previously with its PIF (the NY Times article details some of the questionable investments), but in a sense that almost works against the company because I would imagine there will be less desire to risk messing that up with an EA game project that is deemed “too high risk” by whoever makes those calls.

I don’t think that will have much impact on the sports game decisions, but other parts of EA could suffer from that sort of thinking. But, for now, we’ll just keep an eye on it.

Four Other Quick News Tidbits

We already had a full day of NFL football for Thanksgiving, and Madden 26 did get updated rosters in advance of that. Jahmyr Gibbs got boosted to a 98 overall, so he’s on the verge of getting into the 99 Club. And that club is a little more empty this week because Saquon Barkley got demoted to a 97 overall.

EA FC 26 will be getting another sizable update in December, and the development team is keeping everyone posted in a way that I think is the new gold standard for communication with its users. Whether you agree with their choices or not — or even think they’re fixing what they say they are — the development team is at least keeping us posted on patch progress, which is good. A lot of developers are great at communicating before launch and showcasing everything new in the game, but then it gets a little more murky post-launch.

Another soccer game will be entering its closed beta in a couple months, and you can sign-up if you want. This one is called Freestyle Football 2, and you can get a little feel for it here:

Finally, what I’m most excited about is that an announcement was made that Skate Story will be on PlayStation Plus on December 8. You will also be able to purchase it on the Switch 2 and PC, but getting it “free” as part of your PS Plus subscription is exciting to me because I hope more people discover this game because of it.

We’ve already had a bunch of good skating games come out this year, but this one is unique, and I hope it turns out well because it has been kicking around in development for years. There is also a demo that’s been out since October if you want to get a little taste.

Black Friday Sports Game Deals

It’s pretty straight forward this year. Half price is the starting point (at least in the US), and you can find some deals that get you even a little lower than that. On OS proper, we detailed that Steam and EA’s sites are essentially giving out every game from this year at $35. This means EA FC 26 and Madden 26 are now $35 on the PC.

This same kind of deal applies on the 2K side of things, so PGA Tour 2K, WWE 2K, and NBA 2K are also 50 percent off (or more).

In terms of console deals, we can get closer to 60 percent off or more:

• Amazon has the PS5 version of Madden 26 for $28

• Amazon has NHL 26 available for $30 for both Xbox and PlayStation

• Amazon has CFB 26 up for between $28-30 depending on platform

• Amazon has WWE 2K25 up for $15 on all platforms

• Gamestop has NBA 2K26 up for $25 on Xbox

• Gamestop has PGA Tour 2K25 up for $30

• Gamestop has MLB The Show 25 up for $18.

• Gamestop is also running its usual “buy 2, get 1 free pre-owned” offer so you would want to check their site out if you’re buying multiple games

And if you have been in the market for a PS5, many sites are running a PS5 deal that gets you $100 off the retail price. This means you could get a digital-only console for $400 or the one with a disc drive for $450. The latest version of the console (the PS5 Pro) has the same deal in place, so that would run you $650 right now.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase