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Amazon Prime Day 2021 is getting close to wrapping up. That means you have just a few more hours to score incredible deals on electronics, smart gadgets, home goods, kitchen gear and more. Granted, in years past a few Prime Day deals lingered on past the main sales event, but there are no guarantees and it’s a good bet most of the good stuff will be gone once the clock strikes midnight. 

For now, here are a few of our favorites from Prime Day 2021, all of them still available at the time of this writing:

Amazon frequently discounts its own products, but you’re not likely to see prices this low again until Black Friday. Note that you’ll need a Prime membership to take advantage of a lot of the Prime Day sales, but check out our guide for how to win at Prime Day to get started. Here’s a guide to sign up for Amazon Prime membership. And make sure to check out Amazon’s own Prime Day page for updates.

Read more: The Cheapskate’s favorite Prime Day 2021 deals: Top picks starting at $6

Also worth noting: Other stores, including Best Buy, Walmart and Target, have competing sales at the same time. At Walmart, for example, you can grab the previous-generation Apple TV 4K 32GB streaming box for $99, one of the lowest prices I can recall. Find the other sales here:

Finally, be sure to peek at these other incentives, which will be ending soon: 

• Don’t already have an Amazon Prime Rewards Visa card? Now’s the time to sign up: You’ll immediately receive a $150 Amazon gift card upon approval. Use that virtual cash to buy stuff before Prime Day is over, or just tuck it away for future use.
• Prime members can get great deals on video, including 99-cent streaming subscriptions.

Prime Day deals available right now

Expired deals, may return soon

Everything to know about Prime Day 2021

Stay tuned for more!

Read more: The Cheapskate’s 6 ways to win Prime Day

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CNET’s Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on tech products and much more. For the latest deals and updates, follow him on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up for deal texts delivered right to your phone. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and check out our CNET Coupons page for the latest Walmart discount codes, eBay coupons, Samsung promo codes and even more from hundreds of other online stores. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Answers live on our FAQ page.

Sonic the Hedgehog and friends are now playable in Minecraft, making good on a tease from Sega earlier this year. Sega and Minecraft developer Mojang promise “epic levels,” races against friends, and hidden secrets in the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog’s blockiest adventure yet.

The whole gang’s here: Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Miles “Tails” Prower, Shadow the Hedgehog, Super Sonic, Dr. Robotnik, and, well, some Chaos. Big the Cat does not appear to be confirmed … yet.

Minecraft players will be able to visit Sonic’s popular haunts, like the Green Hills Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, and battle bosses (Robotnik, naturally) in the new Minecraft Marketplace content. Players can also nab a free Sonic the Hedgehog character creator item. An upcoming two-week special event will feature Sonic the Hedgehog-themed minigames and “additional surprises.”

Sonic the Hedgehog turns 30 years old this week, and Sega is marking the anniversary with a variety of new game projects, including a Sonic Colors remaster, a retro collection that includes Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and a new 3D Sonic game coming sometime next year.

the world is opening up again, but on a sizzling summer day you might still want to stay inside with the shades drawn and the AC ticking away. Amazon Prime Day brings with it tons of deals to help you build or upgrade your own indoor gaming oasis. It was seriously hard to pare this list down, but we managed it. Here are the very best Prime Day deals on gaming accessories.

Note: We regularly update articles and strike through items that sell out or rise in price as of publishing, and we calculate discounts based on recent product pricing or average price, not MSRP. Be sure to check discounts for yourself. Our picks come from research and our extensive experience reviewing products You’ll need a subscription to Amazon Prime to get most of these deals.

Updated: We’ve checked all links and updated pricing, and added some game deals.

Table of Contents

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

One of the launch titles for the PS5, and easily the best Spider-Man game in years, Spider-Man Miles Morales follows the adventures of Miles Morales as he takes over for Peter Parker as Spider-Man. It’s a follow up to the wildly popular Marvel’s Spider-Man and includes a totally new story, new powers, and a bangin’ new soundtrack. The Ultimate Edition includes a code for a remastered version of the original game.

Before you jump on this recent release, keep in mind it’s super hard. Like Dark Souls hard. That said, it’s also a blast. Shoot your way through hordes of monsters while you unravel the mysteries of an alien world trapped in a time loop. Just keep in mind you’ll die, a lot. It’s okay though, that’s part of the fun.

Speaking of difficult games designed to be punishing, Demon’s Souls is another killer game that really gives you the next-gen experience. It’s a complete remake of the PS3 classic, but with the benefit of modern gameplay improvements, and lavishly detailed graphics. The story can be a bit labyrinthine, but if you’ve ever played a Dark Souls game you’ll be right at home with the cryptic, creepy worldbuilding and delightfully strange characters you’ll encounter.

My favorite Assassin’s Creed game since Assassin’s Creed 2, this new entry takes you to the British Isles during one of many Viking incursions. You take on the role of Eivor Wolf-Kissed, a Viking raider seeking riches in the rolling hills of ancient England. It’s one of the most beautiful games of the recent generation too, the verdant landscapes studded with Roman ruins are characters in themselves and lend an immersive sense of place to the game world. Also available on PS4 and PS5.

There are tons of great Prime Day headset deals out there, and a few of these are even on our Best Gaming Headsets and Best Wireless Gaming Headsets guides.

JBL’s non-wireless version of this headset, the Quantum One, made it onto our Best Gaming Headsets list, impressing with its killer spatial surround-sound system. This version cuts the wires and adds active noise-canceling technology to block out your surroundings. The headset itself is bright and colorful, with pulsing lights beneath frosted plastic. It’s a bit bulky, but it’s so immersive you won’t even notice. If you want to spend even less, the Quantum 600 doesn’t have ANC and isn’t as robust, but it’s on sale for $100 ($50 off). And if you don’t care for wireless, the Quantum 300 is a solid wired alternative for $40 ($40 off). Works best with PC. 

This is the best gaming headset under $50, and the Prime Day price matches the best one that we’ve seen. It’s comfortable, with good sound quality and a removable mic, and overall it feels like it should cost much more than it does. (Especially today.) Works with all systems. 

Logitech’s G935 wireless gaming headset is as soft and cushiony as it is big and blue. It’s comfy enough to wear all day, and thanks to its internal surround system, it does a great job of bringing in-game environments to life. Works best with PC.

Simple and straightforward, Razer’s Kraken headsets are a tried and true choice if you’re looking for a lightweight gaming headset with big comfy ear cups for those long gaming sessions. Works with all systems. 

Rectangular ear cups and Logitech blue vibes make the G432 stand out from any crowd. The microphone is the real star here, producing super clear sound without picking up too much background noise. Great for anyone with roommates. Works best with PC. 

The Cloud Alpha S is a solid all-around gaming headset. It has comfortable ear cups and a mic that picks up your voice without any annoying background noise, and it includes 7.1 surround sound. Works with all systems.

The Cloud Flight S is the gaming headset for anyone who wants all-day comfort, rich sound, a detachable microphone, and wireless capability. These cans are among our favorites and for good reason. If there were a platonic ideal gaming headset, it’d be the Cloud Flight S. Works best with PC and PlayStation.

Nothing can make or break a desktop PC setup like the wrong keyboard. A few of these picks are in our Best Gaming Keyboards guide.

This is one of our favorite gaming keyboards, partially because it has so many baked-in bells and whistles. RGB lighting? Customizable switches down to the individual key level? Clicky, tactile mechanics? Check, check, and check. It doesn’t hurt that this is one of the best prices we’ve ever seen for it.

This board uses Cherry MX Speed Silver key switches, which have a linear key travel ideally suited to fast-paced twitch games, such as first-person shooters. Whereas many gaming keyboards omit the number keypad to save space, this one has the full gamut of number keys, which will come in handy if you’re an RPG player who maps actions to number keys.

Black Widow keyboards are all about that straightforward, elegant style. It has squared-off edges, solid footing, a braided cable, and bright but never muddy RGB lighting.

Another personal favorite, this tiny little keyboard will fit on a desk of any size and look cute doing it. With backlit keys and a durable braided cable, it’s a great choice for a battle station or a family computer. Because of its small size, you’ll have extra room for your big mousepad.

The G513 Carbon has clicky GX Blue switches for those snappy-but-not-clacky vibes. Typing feels great, whether you’re playing a PC game or slaying spreadsheets.

You’re spoiled for choice when it comes to Prime Day deals on a gaming mouse. Tons of our favorites are on sale right now, and we’ve highlighted a few here. Read our Best Gaming Mouse guide to see more of our top picks, and check out Matt Jancer’s rave on why an ergonomic mouse will save your wrist, even if you don’t game.

We’ve been impressed with Razer’s Viper lineup, and the Ultimate Wireless version most of all. It has the narrow-body form factor we love, the super-sensitive optical sensor, and it’s wireless. The dongle is super tiny and won’t take up a port-and-a-half like others. In fact, it has a compartment in the belly of the mouse to stow the dongle, making it a great pick for laptop gamers.

Gone are the days when using a wireless mouse instead of a wired one meant lag and skipping mouse cursors. Logitech’s Lightspeed wireless connection has a response rate of only one millisecond. This is the mouse used by both WIRED reviewer Matt Jancer—its ergonomic shape helped eliminate his wrist pain—and WIRED games writer Cecilia D’Anastasio.

The 650 Quantum has all the charm of a robotic mech suit. It looks like it’s from the future. Two seams of LED lighting flow up the narrow body of the mouse to the super-clicky buttons. It’s all covered in a soft-touch coating too, so it feels ultra-comfy on your palm.

OK, a light-up mousepad isn’t something anyone’s gaming setup really needs, but it is super cool. The surface is nice and slick, and just about any mouse we tried glided effortlessly across it. Not to mention those RGB lights.

The Viper Mini is an adorable little thing, and it’s a perfect pick if you have smaller hands or find most gaming mice too long for your fingers. It’s also a great pick for laptop and mobile gaming because it fits into a bag so easily. It’s also dirt cheap. 

Another budget-friendly option, this is the best cheap gaming mouse. It’s only $20, but it packs premium features like customizable RGB and extra thumb buttons, and the sensitivity should be fine for most people. This is the best price we’ve seen all year.

The Pulsefire Surge is easily one of our favorite mice. It’s understated, super comfortable to use, and has a single seam of RGB lighting around the body of the mouse. If you’re looking for a gaming workhorse but don’t want to spend too much, this is a great pick.

Read our guides to the Best Switch Accessories, Best PS5 Accessories, and Best Gifts for Xbox Gamers for more recommendations.

The Switch Lite usually costs $200, so you might not think of this as much of a deal, but this bundle comes with a SanDisk 128-gigabyte MicroSD card that usually goes for $23. You’re effectively getting this card for free. If you plan on mostly buying digital versions of games, a memory card comes in handy. Most people will only need about 128 gigs, but if you have an extensive game library you might want to step up to 256 GB.  

Give yourself a hand in more action-oriented games by pairing Nintendo’s official wireless controller with your Nintendo Switch. Controllers can also reduce hand fatigue in slower-paced games too. Each controller will give you 40 hours of playtime before needing a recharge.

Frequently play your Switch in handheld mode? You’ll know how annoying it is when the battery runs low. This battery pack can recharge it as you play, but it also can replace your Switch’s dock. The HDMI-out port lets you hook it directly to a TV—handy if you’re in a hotel.

If you play video games on an Xbox console or PC, this subscription is well worth it. It includes Xbox Live Gold, which lets you play online multiplayer on Xbox consoles, and Game Pass. The latter nets you unlimited access to more than 100 PC console and PC games, and new games are routinely added to the list. Titles from Xbox Game Studios are added on the same day they’re released. It’s typically $15 per month, but this deal offers three months for the price of two. If you want to try it for one month, you can for just $1.

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If you’d like to check the deals yourself, here are some links to all the sales going on this week.

Tens of thousands of people are coordinating online in search of clues surrounding what’s either a series of curious coincidences or a conspiracy led by one of the world’s most celebrated video game directors.

It starts with a PlayStation 5 game called Abandoned. In April, Sony Group Corp. unveiled the project from a small Dutch company, Blue Box Game Studios, with scant details. From there, an elaborate theory emerged that the game does not exist and that it’s actually a secret, new project from the beloved and eccentric Japanese game maker Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series.

Followers set up a community on Reddit to examine the mystery. It now has more than 5,000 members. The hype was fed, in part, by Kojima’s mythic record of stunts and gamesmanship. In the past, the video game legend has generated fake companies and hired actors. To some, the various comments and actions of Hasan Kahraman, the head of Blue Box, have contained strange discrepancies and seemed to fit within Kojima’s patterns.

In an hour-long interview with Bloomberg, Kahraman attempted to demystify several of the assertions underlying the conspiracy: His game has no connection to Kojima; his studio consists of “a network of friends;” and he is a trained game developer, not an actor, he said.

A piece of new evidence supports that last point. Kahraman has regularly posted for the last three months on a forum for Unreal Engine game developers, answering questions and responding to others, according to screenshots shared with Bloomberg by a game developer unrelated to any of this who asked not to be identified because the forum is private.

The truth, as Kahraman tells it, is far less intoxicating. An unknown company is awkwardly navigating a big opportunity to capitalize on an unexpected surge of interest and to do so without alienating Sony or betraying promotional agreements.

“It doesn’t matter how much I try to debunk all this,” Kahraman said by phone. “People don’t believe it. They just expect something that’s not out there. It bothers me.”

 

A conspiracy theory can come from anywhere. Often, as with the moon landing, the assassination of John F. Kennedy or Sept. 11, it grows on the fringes of a major event. But sometimes, it can seemingly spring out of nowhere and spread, especially in the internet age, with ferocity.

Blue Box is more innocuous than the others but grew practically as fast. It’s driven by a long list of possible connections between Hasan Kahraman and Hideo Kojima. Some of the supposed links are spurious, but others are more convincing. The two men share initials, and the name Kahraman in Turkish translates to Hideo in Japanese, according to Google Translate.

These beliefs have gained traction due to Kojima’s history of hosting elaborate marketing stunts to unveil games. The trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was first shown in 2012 with a mysterious video featuring a logo for an imaginary company called Moby Dick Studio. Kojima even hired an actor to play the company’s fictional chief executive officer, Joakim Mogren, for an interview. Joakim is an anagram for Kojima, reflecting the director’s penchant for playing with pseudonyms.

Next, Kojima used another fake company name for a 2014 game demo called P.T. When players completed the demo, they were treated to a teaser for a new game in the horror franchise Silent Hill, billed as a collaboration between Kojima and film director Guillermo del Toro. The project was canceled a year later as part of an acrimonious split between Kojima and his former employer, Konami Holdings Corp.

Suspicions about Blue Box started almost immediately after it announced Abandoned in April, but they went into overdrive last week following a since-deleted Twitter post from the company. The tweet said Abandoned was a code name and that the final title would start with an S and end with an L. This stoked speculation that the game would morph into Kojima’s long-awaited new Silent Hill game, propelling a two-month-old Abandoned trailer to more than a million views on YouTube.

Over the past few days, Reddit sleuths have only hardened their convictions. The original Sony blog post for Abandoned was full of red flags. It promised realistic graphics at 4K resolutions and frame rates of 60 per second, benchmarks that would be difficult to hit for the most established game studios, let alone a tiny one like Blue Box. Sony didn’t respond to a request for comment.

As the days went on, fans discovered more oddities. Blue Box claimed to have a team of more than 50 people working on the game; yet, LinkedIn showed no employees other than Kahraman. Blue Box also said the game will be revealed through a PlayStation 5 application designed as an interactive trailer, which has never been done before.

The situation grew stranger when Geoff Keighley, a video game personality who interviewed Kojima’s fake CEO in 2013 and has helped reveal many of the director’s games, hinted on Twitter that he would be involved in the unveiling of Abandoned. Keighley, a longtime friend of Kojima, did not respond to a request for comment.

 

In the interview with Bloomberg, Kahraman said he has been making games since he was a kid. He hasn’t had much success.

Blue Box tried to raise just under $12,000 from a Kickstarter campaign in 2015 to make a horror game called Rewind. The crowdfunding project ended with $207 in pledges. Kahraman canceled the Kickstarter, writing that Rewind would be “fully funded by a private investor,” but the game never came out. A different game connected to Blue Box was buggy and poorly received when it debuted last year.

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Apple

stock has been dead in the water this year, as investors absorb the stock’s 81% surge in 2020—and think through the ramifications of the company’s fantastic March quarter financial performance, ongoing regulatory attention and continuing component shortages.

What Apple (ticker: AAPL) stock need is a new catalyst—like the fall iPhone launch.

Apple announces a new generation of iPhone every fall. Last year, in an announcement delayed by the pandemic, Apple unveiled the iPhone 12, the company’s first generation of 5G handsets. That launch was preceded by deafening buzz, and widespread speculation about a pending “supercycle” that would accelerate demand. And in fact, iPhone sales were up 66% in the March quarter, the first full reporting period since the launch.

There’s basically no buzz at all on the iPhone 13 (or whatever the next generation is called). But the new phones surely are coming. Wedbush analyst
Dan Ives
asserted in a research note Monday that an announcement is likely the third week of September. (The company has not actually announced a date, and isn’t likely to do so this far in advance.) He thinks the iPhone 13 will include a new 1 terabyte storage option, with a number of feature enhancements, including Lidar—laser-based radar—across all models, which should drive more adoption of augmented reality applications.

Ives says that his checks with the Apple supply chain in Asia finds that the company is targeting 130 million to 150 million overall units in the calendar second half. He adds that iPhone 13 appears to be 35% to 45% of iPhone third-quarter builds. He adds that initial build orders are in the 90 million to 100 million unit range for iPhone 13, up from his original estimate of initial orders of 80 million on iPhone 12.

His view: the surge in demand for 5G phones should continue from here, with a boost from the post-vaccine reopening environment.

Apple stock on Monday is up 1% to $131.68.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com