The cheapest place to pre-order Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Following the success of games such as Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls trilogy, and Elden Ring, developer FromSoftware is reviving the decades-old franchise, Armored Core.

Piloting a highly customisable giant robot known as a 'mech', you play a mercenary sent to planet Rubicon 3 to investigate a new resource called 'coral' and complete missions at the behest of competing corporations and backstabbing private clients. 

While we can't comment on how good it is, we've broken down the cheapest places to pick it up.

When is the Armored Core VI release date and what consoles will it be on? 

The game launches 25 August for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S and X, Xbox One, and on PC.

If you're after a PlayStation 5, you can get up to £80 off of one until 10 August, read our breakdown on the full sale.

Should you pre-order Armored Core 6?

We don't test or review individual games at Which?, so we can't say for sure whether or not it will be good. We can help you decide whether or not to pre-order it though.

Depending on where you buy from, it's not uncommon for some retailers to sell pre-orders for games at a slight discount. The cheapest we've seen Armored Core VI  is £48.58 on console, and £36.85 on PC, compared to RRP £54.99 (console) and £49.99 (PC). 

Once the game launches, most retailers will readjust their prices to reflect RRP – so if you know you want to pick up the game, it might be worth considering a pre-order to save some money.

If you're on the fence about the game, it might be worthwhile learning more about it before going to buy it.

Plenty of our experts here at Which? have run the Dark Souls gauntlet, but we aren't exactly Armored Core vets. From what we can tell, combat plays at a faster pace than Bloodbourne, Elden Ring, and Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice.

Judging from what we know about the last Armored Cores, you'll be playing several smaller, objective-focused missions as opposed to the more sprawling, open game worlds of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring. If you're after a character-driven role-playing game, Armored Core VI might not be the best game for you.

If you're a fan of FromSoftware games or love racking up S-rank scores in games with replayable missions and levels: pre-order it.

If you're after slower combat or something more open-ended: wait until release when more reviews come in.

Before purchasing any game, we'd always recommend reading reviews, watching gameplay videos, and seeing what people thought of the game first.

Which edition should you buy?

The standard edition of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is just the game itself, and costs around £50. The deluxe edition costs £9 more, and comes with a digital art book and mp3s of the soundtrack. Both editions come with some extra customisation options for your armored core in-game.

There are also three more editions available directly from Bandi Namco: the Launch Edition, the Collector's Edition, and the Premium Collector's Edition. 

• The Launch Edition comes with collector's box for the game, a poster, stickers, and art cards. You can pick it up for £54.99 on PC, or £59.99 on console.
• The Collector's Edition comes with the game in a SteelBook, a 19cm tall figure of an Armored Core, a hard-cover physical copy of the artbook, the digital soundtrack, some pins, a poster, stickers, and art cards. It costs £199.99 for both PC and console. 
• The Premium Collector's Edition comes with everything above, plus a 'garage' to store the Armored Core figurine that stands 32cm tall. You can pick one up for console only (the PC version is out of stock) for an eye-watering £399.99 – which is enough to purchase a new PlayStation 5, which is currently on sale.

The cheapest place to pre-order Armored Core 6 on PlayStation

There are dozens of retailers selling Armored Core VI pre-orders. Here are the cheapest we've found. Prices are for the standard edition on the PlayStation 5:

• Hit.co.uk., formerly Base.com, is a budget games retailer out of Cheltenham. It's selling Armored Core VI for £48.58 for delivery only, and is the cheapest place we've found it available for PlayStation 4 and 5.
• The Game Collection, a budget games retailer out of Swansea, is taking pre-orders for the Launch Edition for £49.95 with free mainland delivery.
• HMV is selling the Launch Edition of Armored Core VI for £52.99 for free delivery or click-and-collect from any UK store.
• Amazon also offers a slight discount on the Launch Edition too – taking pre-orders for £52.99, with free next-day delivery if you're a Prime member.

You can also always pick up a digital, standard copy from the PlayStation Store for £54.99. It will automatically be added to your games library and you may be able to download it a day before launch so you don't have to wait to play when it releases at midnight on 25 August.

Where else to pre-order

Below, you can check the best prices on a physical copy of the Launch Edition of Armored Core VI from other online retailers:

Read our full guide on how to buy a PlayStation 5, and how to get the best deals on games.

The cheapest place to pre-order Armored Core VI on Xbox

Out of several retailers selling Armored Core VI on Xbox, here are the cheapest. Prices are for the standard edition on the Series X and S.

• Hit.co.uk. is selling Armored Core VI for £48.58 for delivery only. It's the cheapest place we've found it for Xbox.
• The Game Collection is taking pre-orders for the Launch Edition of Fires of Rubicon for £49.95 with free mainland delivery.
• HMV is offering a slight discount to Armored Core VI – you can pre-order the Launch Edition for £52.99 for free delivery or click-and-collect from any UK store.

You can also pre-order a standard, digital copy from the Xbox Store for £54.99. It will automatically be added to your games library and you may be able to pre-load before launch.

Where else to pre-order

Below, you can check the best prices on a physical copy of the Launch Edition of Armored Core VI from other online retailers:

The cheapest place to pre-order Armored Core VI on PC

There are hundreds of sellers for Armored Core VI on PC, mainly 3rd-party games keys sellers. This includes the standard digital version, and the Launch Edition. We've broken down the cheapest places to pick them up:

• ShopTo is currently selling Armored Core VI for the cheapest we've seen on any platform. It's just a digital game key for the standard edition, but it goes for £36.85.
• Very is selling a 'physical' version of the Launch Edition of Armored Core for £43.99, making it among the cheapest retailers we've seen. It's just a code in a box though, plus all the extras the Launch Edition offers. There's free click-and-collect as well.
• The Game Collection – a budget retailer out of Swansea – is currently selling the Launch Edition of Armored Core VI for £44.95. It's not a crazy discount, but if the price drops before release they'll refund you the difference. Mainland UK shipping is free, too.

Overall, PC players are able to pick up new games cheaper than on console. This is typically due to the licensing fees console manufacturers charge for developers to use their platforms.

You can always pre-order a digital copy of the standard version from Steam for £49.99, which will avoid delays in shipping, and may allow you to pre-load the game so you don't need to wait to play it at midnight on 25 August.

Should you order from a 3rd-party key seller?

There are several sites like G2A and CDKeys.com that sell games for less than RRP. Sites like G2A do this by being a marketplace – similar to eBay – where anyone can buy and sell games keys. Retailers like CDKeys will instead buy keys in bulk from countries where the game retails cheaper than in the UK or USA, then sell them at a slight mark up.

You might be tempted to buy a key at a bargain, but you should know that there have been concerns from game developers in the past about the legitimacy of how retailers like G2A have obtained the games keys they sell. There have also been instances where developers will nullify certain games keys they've deemed 'illegitimately obtained', leaving gamers who purchased the codes with a game they can't play and unable to get a refund from the seller.

You're not guaranteed to get a working game key, and even then a developer or publisher might make it null. Without a guaranteed refund either, you can risk it and try and score a deal, but we'd recommend buying from a mainstream games retailer instead.

Should you order a digital copy from ShopTo?

Currently, ShopTo – a Berkshire-based budget games retailer – is offering the digital version of Armored Core VI for £36.85, with the deluxe version going for £43.85.

It's the lowest price we've seen for PC from a retailer, sitting a cool £13 off RRP. Before you go to buy, know that some reviews of ShopTo indicate towards poor customer service, and physical games pre-orders taking longer to deliver.

That said, ordering a key from ShopTo means it will come via an email, and isn't as likely to have delays. You're also more likely to get a working key or a refund if something goes wrong than if you ordered from a marketplace such as G2A. 

We'd still urge some caution, but it's not necessarily a bad option.

Can you get a physical copy of Armored Core VI for PC?

You can – kind of. You won't get a disc with the game on it like you'd used to. You'll get a code in a box, which you'll then redeem on platforms like Steam.

Where else to pre-order

Below, you can check the best prices on copies of the Launch Edition of Armored Core VI from other online retailers:

Do you need to play the other Armored Core games?

FromSoftware seems to be aware that this will be many gamers' first Armored Core game. It's likely that since Fires of Rubicon takes place on a new planet – Rubicon 3 – that there will be a new storyline.

While you don't need to play the prior games, FromSoftware likes to hide their worlds' storytelling – forcing players to find the main story through item descriptions or snippets of dialogue. If you want to learn more about the world of Armored Core, it might be worthwhile playing a few of the previous games such as Armored Core V or Armored Core 4. 

Where to buy other Armored Core games

It's been a decade since Armored Core V and games are not widely available unless you buy second-hand. The previous two games, 4 and V, came out on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – two whole generations behind current consoles. 

You can pick up a copy of the older Armored Core games from retailers like CeX, or check your local games stores.

If you're on PC, however, the majority of the Armored Core games won't be available – Fires of Rubicon is the first game in the series to make its way onto PC.

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