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Microsoft’s console is dominating this generation already. With a healthy stock and a cheaper option, as well as Game Pass, here’s what we expect to roll around this Black Friday.

After what felt like multiple mistakes during the Xbox One era, Microsoft is back on top with the Xbox Series X and S this time around. It’s got some killer exclusives ready to go, with a full stack of third-party games as well. The best thing about these two consoles? Game Pass.

Game Pass is probably the best deal you can get, even when it isn’t on sale. It brings a whole wealth of titles to your console (and PC) for a monthly fee, including EA Play if you decide to go for the Ultimate subscription.

However, we don’t expect to see Game Pass get discounted too much, if at all. The subscription service brings in a lot of money, but does frequently run deals like ‘first month for a dollar’. What we do expect to see discounted is bundles including Game Pass.

The Xbox Series S is basically a jukebox for any and all games that come through it. It’s a tiny, white box that comfortably sits in any media center and best of all plays every modern game at a fraction of the cost of the Xbox Series X.

We’ve already seen some places drop the price of the Xbox Series S, including Microsoft themselves. The Series X, however, might be another story.

Microsoft’s flagship console is in stock a little more frequently, but much like the PS5, is still selling at a healthy rate while at full price. We don’t expect to see the console go on sale itself during the holiday season.

Also, with the PS5 getting a price increase, it’s still cheaper to get hold of an Xbox this holiday.

We’ll be keeping an eye out for any bundles and smaller discounts that we find. In all honesty, the best place to keep your eyes glued to will be Best Buy, which regularly knocks it out of the park.

As with all the other manufacturers, the games are where we’ll see a vast majority of the sales come from. Microsoft is keen to scupper Sony’s chances this holiday, so expect to see the company reduce its digital offerings by a fair margin.

Throughout the year, we’ve seen Microsoft actually pull decent sales where it counts, with most current-gen and last-gen games getting prices that you don’t mind going all in on.

Be sure to keep an eye on the Xbox games though, as it might be worth you getting hold of Game Pass over your own copy. Though, if you do get a game through Game Pass, sometimes it doesn’t come with the DLC you might want.

This won’t be the year you see Call of Duty or Blizzard games hit Game Pass though, as the 2023 merger is under scrutiny from the UK watchdogs, as well as not planned to be completed until well into next year.

Microsoft works a little differently from Sony, as, they have a massive range of first-party controllers that they frequently reduce in price. Throughout each major sale, Microsoft’s different styles of Xbox controllers get some sort of discount.

Of course, the various third-party controllers will also see slashes in prices, along with any and all gadgets and gizmos to make your playtime on the console easier. We’ll be sure to sift through the sand to find the gold, so you don’t have to browse Amazon for hours at a time to find the right one.

We don’t expect the Seagate storage expansion cards to get a discount, mostly due to the fact that these are built off of CFast media, which is a wildly expensive storage option used in video production.

You can also see our expectations for PlayStation, Nintendo and even the wider breadth of sales happening this Black Friday.