This year's October Prime Day was a hit because we are nearing the end a generation. Black Friday could be the last chance to get a good deal.

You can't deny the fact that October Prime Day was a great deal. There were plenty of 'discounts,' but they were just discounts on recently raised prices. However, there were also some genuinely good deals.

The past two days have been a blur but I believe we managed to catch at least some of the great discounts. For example, an RTX-4070 Super gaming computer was available for only $1,100. The Lenovo Legion Go handheld was $550. The Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro had its lowest ever Amazon price. And the Samsung T9 External SSD cost less than $0.06/GB.

Several of them are still on-going. You can still get the RTX Super build for $1100 at Walmart, Legion Go for $550 on Amazon, and DeathAdder V3 Pro at $110 at Amazon. We said that some Prime Day sales tend to continue for a little while after the official end date.

Why are there so many great deals this time? There have been some great deals in the past, but this time it was on a whole new level. Even Black Friday and October Prime Day last year didn't hit as hard as October Prime Day this year.

I believe that we are nearing the end of a hardware-generation. We have mobile Intel chips and AMD CPUs of the next generation, and some Intel CPUs of the next generation are almost here. But until the GPU arrives, none of this will be a generational shift.

AMD's RDNA4 GPUs will launch at CES 2025 in January. There are also whispers that Nvidia RTX50-series products may be announced at the same CES. This makes sense, given that Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is hosting the CES 2025 Keynote.

So, while some next-gen components are here or practically-but-not-quite here, the most important ones for us gamers aren't quite, but they are on the near horizon. When it comes to an entire system, such as a gaming laptop or PC, we are still in the same place we have been for the last two years.

RTX 40 series and RX 7000 series systems - whether they're Intel 13th Gen or 14th Gen, Lunar Lake or Arrow Lake (soon to be Arrow Lake) or AMD Zen 5 - are all very much part of the current generation. We have every reason to think that the next generation will be here soon.

The system builders and manufacturers will also know this. They will know that their current retail systems, no matter how up-to-date the CPUs, RAM and SSDs are, will soon be replaced by new systems with the best graphics cards.

It's important to clear the stock because no one will want to buy the 40-series or 7000-series at full price next year, when new systems are released. It would be like putting money on the table if these systems were not sold by the end of the year.

It is possible that the same thing could be true, but to a much smaller extent, for other things, such as peripherals. These items are often purchased at the same time as new systems or around that time. It makes sense that other devices, peripherals, and components would follow suit.

All of this is good news for consumers. We get some great deals on some still powerful products, as companies try and empty their wares before the next generation.

This could also bode well for Black Friday next month. If October Prime Day is a Black Friday lite and next month we will be closer to the next generation, then we can start getting excited about the prospect of even more fantastic deals.

But a word of caution: If you are looking to spend a lot of money on a new computer, keep in mind that there will be newer models on the market in a few short months that will likely outperform anything you buy now.

This is more of a concern for those who are looking to buy high-end systems, even at discounted prices. The next-gen competition may not be available for some time to those who are looking at budget or more moderate rigs.

If the Black Friday deals are as good as we think they will be - and I have every reason to believe that they will be - then they may be worth it for the next generation. Fingers crossed!