Braced for Black Friday

On Friday 24th November, the retail sector is going to be bracing itself for the busiest shopping day of the year. It's the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend, and the day when the Christmas spending spree traditionally commences. And to help pull eager customers in, many retailers offer enticing deals.

Storm8 are no different, and on this day they do something a little different from your regular Friday in Restaurant Story. The sales they offer vary from year to year, as does the quality of the overall 'experience' for us players. So to get you into the Black Friday mindset, I've done two things. Firstly, I've put in place a timer counting down the seconds to the big day (because who doesn't like to be tormented with a countdown that just won't go fast enough!) And secondly, I've put together a brief overview of the treats which have been provided in recent years, just to get you in the zone...

 2012: Incorrect pricing fails to dampen spirits

We start with the first Black Friday that I experienced, around four months after downloading the game. With Black Friday a complete non-entity at this time in the UK, I had no inkling that something big was coming. So imagine my surprise when a range of box prizes were made available in the market, old limited time offers were re-released, and a small number of existing decorations were reduced in price!

Black Friday 2012 sale items

There was something of a focus on certain themes which had been covered earlier in the year, with retro diner, futuristic and steampunk content among those given the treatment. I don't recall purchasing any of the 19 marked down items (although I have picked up a few of them since). Instead my moment came with the Christmas sale which followed in December, when I made my one and only ever purchase of gems with real money.

One negative with this sale was that some of the items were wrongly priced at the outset (the prices above are the amended costs). Fortunately the game's developers were pretty efficient with their corrections, and by the end of the day the prices had been updated and the sale extended.

A 40% off gems sale was on the go too, while there was also a special Thanksgiving sweepstake in which players could earn a raffle ticket for every batch of Waffles served. The prize for 10 lucky winners? A massive stash of 1,000 gems! It was a great prize, and had players around the world cooking Waffles like there was no tomorrow (over 12 million batches were served in total!)

 2013: Wide variety of heavily discounted decor

For me Black Friday 2013 was the greatest single day in Restaurant Story history. I remember pondering which of the great content to go for with fondness - it was a sale worthy of the occasion.

Black Friday 2013 sale items

Half of the decor included were crate first prizes, with some of them up for just 13 gems. Paying that amount for the Swedish Kitchen and Action Dining was a no-brainer in my view, and they were among 107 gems worth of purchases for me. I've never experienced a more productive day in the game!

The complete sale only ran on the Friday, with selected items returning over the rest of the weekend but at higher prices, including on Cyber Monday. Indeed, Cyber Monday gave players a second opportunity to buy gems at 40% off following the Friday offering. And running all weekend was another sweepstake. This one was different from that featured in 2012 though, with tickets for the raffle given for every real dollar spent. That was obviously less exciting than the Waffle sweepstake 12 months earlier, plus it was restricted to US residents aged 18 and above. There's not been a sweepstake since.

 2014: Festive outlook as sale ends prematurely

Two years ago there was a distinctly festive theme going on with the 20 decorations included in the Black Friday sale, with only past LTOs and removed stuff included.

Black Friday 2014 sale items

So in contrast to 2013's selection, there were no box prizes thrown into the mix. And on this occasion Christmas was more heavily represented than seen previously, with eight of the items up for grabs being related to the festive season. Given the abundance of Christmas themed content I'd accumulated in past years, this didn't go down too well with me, especially with shiny new Christmas decor presumably on the way in upcoming weeks.

But the 2014 sale is best remembered for what was an unmitigated shambles with the timing. Typically the deals flash up at reset time (8am GMT) but in 2014 they popped up four hours early. Despite this the finishing time advertised was reset time on Saturday, and yet everything vanished well before. Cue pandemonium in-game and on the Storm8 Forum. Luckily the gamemakers did extend the sale to a second day, but by that time the damage was done, with lots of frustrated players.

At least the 40% off sale on gems did run for the duration originally stated. But after such a glorious experience in 2013, there's no doubting that disappointment was the overwhelming emotion around the community. Fortunately Storm8 did recognise this, and bounced back with a tremendous and wide-ranging sale of 30 items which ran throughout the Christmas fortnight.

 2015: Low key effort leaves players fuming

Then there's 2015. It was already a year in which there'd been signs of the game's demise, with the launch of a sequel title, Restaurant Story 2, perhaps the most telling. Things have of course improved since then, but on a cold November night I did wonder if the end was nigh.

Black Friday 2015 sale items

A paltry six items were offered for Black Friday 2015, and to add insult to injury one was the very expensive Gem Dispenser (even at 40% off) and wasn't even available for Android players. As was the case in 2014, there was a Christmassy feel to the deals, but festive cheer was tough to find that weekend. I didn't buy any of the content available, instead opting to sit on the vast mountain of gems I'd been saving for months.

And for the first time, there were no 40% discounts on gem purchases. There's no doubt in my mind that this was the low point of my four and a bit years of playing the game, and I sincerely hope we don't come close to it again!

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So what have we learnt from this voyage through the Black Fridays of yesteryear? Well, the main thing to take away is that Black Friday tends to be a dramatic day in Restaurant Story. It has been central to some of the very best and very worst days of the game's history, and another fascinating chapter will almost certainly be written in a few weeks.

Black Friday 2014 teaser

As far as preparing for the big day goes, I obviously urge you to horde your gems. Between now and the 24th get your appliances working overtime to claim as many mastery gems as possible. And I recommend adapting a strategy which has worked a treat for me down the years - rather than outright mastering a recipe to claim a gem, try bringing the meter to one batch below the endpoint. I term this 'mastery minus one' and it means you can avoid having large numbers of gems in the bank which are ripe for accidentally spending in the lead-up. Then just make that final cook on the day as required.

If you're considering the possibility of purchasing some gems with real money then wait until Black Friday itself. The quality and quantity of the sale does vary year to year, and you're best to make sure there's actually content you want to be investing real dough in. Plus there's the chance of that 40% off deal. It didn't happen last year, but that doesn't mean it can't happen this time.

Also, when it comes to making those tough decisions, take your time. Obviously the range on offer will define how tough the decisions are, but ultimately the sale does last throughout the day. Yet given the timer trouble of two years ago, I in the same breath urge you to avoid waiting till the last minute! Don't rush into your purchases, but be organised!

 Special sales

 28/11/15 Black Friday 2015
 20/12/14 Christmas 2014
 29/11/14 Black Friday 2014

 30/11/13 Black Friday 2013

My final word of advice is to consider Christmas. As I mentioned with regards to 2012 and 2014, special sales akin to Black Friday can happen as Christmas approaches. The 2014 edition in particular was pretty epic, and as a result it may be worth thinking about holding back some gems just in case the game's developers go for it this time. Admittedly a Christmas sale was absent in 2013 and 2015, but then again that points towards the sales happening in even years?!

So now you're briefed! After the car crash in 2015, I fully expected my expectations for 2016 to be at ground zero. And yet given that we've had some comprehensive sales for Autumn, Halloween and Thanksgiving in recent months, I'm worringly optimistic. Storm8 have been generous with their deals in 2016, with the half price boxes throughout the year perhaps the highlight. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few crates marked down, and who knows - maybe even some expansion reductions? I dare to dream...