PlayStation Summer Sale & Xbox Ultimate Game Sale: Weekend Deals Guide
Console owners have two big reasons to check their digital storefronts this weekend: Sony’s PlayStation Store Summer Sale and Microsoft’s Xbox Ultimate Game Sale are both running simultaneously, discounting thousands of PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One titles at once. Between the two promotions, shoppers can find markdowns on everything from recent blockbusters to long-running back catalogue favourites.
PlayStation Store Summer Sale Runs Through August 12
Sony’s Summer Sale went live on Wednesday, July 15, and is scheduled to run from July 15 through August 12. According to PlayStation Store Promotions Delivery Manager Peter Boda, the sale saves shoppers up to 75% across multiple PS5, PS4 and PS VR2 games, add-ons and more, with many hundreds of titles included in the promotion.
The promotion isn’t static for its full four-week run. Sony has built in a mid-sale refresh, with the Summer Sale set to refresh at 00:00am PDT/BST/JST on July 27, at which point some deals will be replaced by new offers. The overall promotion is due to close on August 12 at 23:59 PDT/BST/JST, though certain deals end before August 13, so it pays to check individual product pages before adding anything to the cart.
Headline names expected to anchor the promotion include Elden Ring, Stellar Blade, God of War Ragnarök and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, according to reporting that cross-referenced Sony’s own preview list. Regional coverage out of Japan has also flagged deep cuts on titles such as Ghost of Yōtei Digital Deluxe Edition and Resident Evil Requiem, with some markets seeing discounts climb as high as 80% on select PS5 and PS4 titles.
Xbox Ultimate Game Sale Cuts Thousands of Titles Until July 29
On the Microsoft side, the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale 2026 is also live, and it’s a considerably larger event by sheer volume. The sale is so big it’s straining content management systems, with one reporter noting they’d already spent over $100 on it. Independent tracking site TrueAchievements confirms the sale runs for two weeks and ends on July 29, bringing thousands of discounts across games, DLC packs, expansions and more to the Microsoft Store.
Given the scale of the promotion, coverage has split the deal into separate tracking pages for base games, bundles and DLC. Notable inclusions confirmed across multiple outlets include Final Fantasy VII Remake, Resident Evil Requiem, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Little Nightmares 3, Silent Hill 2, Death Stranding and Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, alongside smaller indie picks like Darkest Dungeon and Mutant Year Zero. Discounts also extend to Xbox Play Anywhere PC titles and backward-compatible Xbox 360 classics, meaning the sale isn’t limited to Series X|S owners.
Two Different Storefronts, Two Different Shopping Strategies
The two sales differ in structure as much as scale. Sony’s event leans on a curated, mid-run refresh that swaps a portion of deals on July 27, rewarding shoppers who check back rather than buy everything on day one. Microsoft’s Ultimate Game Sale, by contrast, front-loads its full catalogue immediately and simply counts down to a hard end date of July 29, favouring those who move quickly on wishlist items before the window closes.
Both promotions also carry the usual caveats that come with any major storefront sale: discount depth varies by region and individual product page, and deluxe or premium bundles don’t always represent better value than buying a base game separately. Shoppers comparing editions across either the PlayStation Store or Xbox Store are advised to check what’s already included through PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass before paying full price for content they may already have access to.
What It Means for NZ and AU Shoppers
Because both sales began on July 15 and are timestamped against US, UK and Japanese time zones, New Zealand and Australian players are already well inside the shopping windows for both storefronts as of this weekend. With Sony’s refresh landing July 27 and Microsoft’s cutoff on July 29, local shoppers effectively have roughly two more weekends to compare pricing on the PlayStation Store before the Xbox promotion wraps, followed by a further two weeks to catch late PlayStation deals through August 12.
Read also: Epic Games Store Summer Sale 2026 Live: 3,000+ Games Up to 95% Off, Two Free Titles
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