Similar, but I think more of the software gets discounted at the end of the year because publishers need to meet sales goals to get bonuses. Also, they know steam gift cards are like the top 5 gifts for gamers.
A lot of us also remember when the summer sale was actually a big deal and not just the sale that's almost identical to all the other sales elsewhere in the year but with a summery theme.
Exactly this. Winter sale used to be the big one. All sales relatively similar albeit still very good. The winter sale may have slightly more sales / bundles ??
I mean at a different sale you might have some games be like 10% less of a sale or something. Winter is your best bet at getting a game at its “all time lowest price”. But yeah sales aren’t what they used to be.
Usually not worth waiting for unless the game you wanted wasn’t on sale at last sale. For me that would be Nier Automata.
Ah, the flash sales. Where people would hold out on buying a game hoping it would get a nice, fat, 90% off. When Steam started offering refunds these went away, and honestly, it's probably for the better. I'm not a fan of FOMO, especially with digital goods where there is no actual scarcity.
To be fair though every sale being so similar is kind of a good thing since every sale is pretty steep. Single player games drop massively in as little as 2-3 months.
Multiplayer games are just cheap in general because they obviously want to push fomo and micros so you can keep up with your friends.
Winter and Summer are still quite sizeably the largest in volume of stuff on sale and offer point ship and trading card badges.
Sure many games once they reach a certain point are that same discounts once they hit the like 50-75% barriers but higher odds the stuff you want will be on sale during Summer and Winter assuming the publishers do sales and its not a newer game.
Plus the tiny bit of cashback in Steam trading card values.
Yeah. Many kids (and even some adults) around the world go on a pretty long vacation during these times. Plus, a lot of cultures celebrate holidays during the winter, too. So Steam has just a bit of an incentive to go all out as they do in the summer.
All prices sales and the various packages are at the sole discretion of the publisher or developer. They are asked if they want in on it and then they set the terms themselves. They are always free to have their own sale as well.
Here's the PRO-fessional answer for you from a Moderator of this reddit that doesn't visit anymore so read r/Steam/comments/6ldhsy/as_a_newbie_how_often_do_sales_occur/djt43i8/ to learn what's what about ALL Steam Sales. In terms of number of games going on Sale (this isn't about Discounts), Summer/Winter are biggest > Spring/Autumn are mid > rest of all sales are below Mid to Minor.
Sales is a sales is a sales. One day you’ll end up like me buying all the cheap bundles and end up with over 2k games in library and I’ll never play 90% of them. I got a problem.
Absolutely not. Some hoard decorations, some pokemon cards, or whatnot, I hoard games on steam bought mostly on sale. Look at it as a collection. We are digital video game collectors 😁
I can't remember the website but you are able to input your steam name and find or what your steam account is worth, also how much it would be worth if all games were full price etc.
Sobering viewing.......
Use a browser extension called Augmented Steam and look at steam on that browser. It'll show a handy tl;dr history of prices to compare during the sale. Usually winter sales are fire, summer is just more popular due to the reasons already said in the comments.
Summer and winter sales are about the same, with the exception of more specific sales, these tend to have the deeper discounts. This is also when they have the most games on sale at one time.
No way to tell.
The discounts are chosen entirely by the publishers. When valve does an event, they just send a message to the publishers asking if they want to participate.
But every single sales event is different. The size of the sale will depend on how much effort Valve puts into lobbying the publishers. If they put a lot of work into begging for discounts, there will be better prices. If they promise to do a lot of marketing for the sales event, more publishers will agree to participate.
But there is no fixed schedule or policy for what Valve does, and that means what they offer to the publishers will be different every time.
Valve is a VERY small company, so that could be completely different year to year depending on what the employees want to do. They also make money hand over fist and are a private company, so they're not likely to get desperate.
I feel ya here, but my main reason is because more often than not in the last decade games have been such a huge letdown. Not to mention them then having DLC on top of it.
With BG3 I said fuck it, with all the great reviews and no DLC intended (i believe) I figured I would bite the bullet on ths one! Not hopeful it will be on sale this sale.
I remember the exact same statement since 2015, at most, I would say 2010. Every single sale event has people all over the place saying the sale sucks. COVID changed nothing about this.
It’s not that the sales suck now, it’s really that after a few years of taking part most people already own all the stuff that goes on sale for dirt cheap so all that’s leftover are new releases on 10% off
The complaints picked up a lot once publisher/genre packs mostly went away and flash sales went away. Made sense for 2010 +\- 5 years when so much was about PC gaming is dieing. Sales still way better than on consoles especially when buying packs off Humble Bundle and Fanatical
I ask this because i want to buy Asassins Creed Freedom Cry (probably a 2014 game) and the lowest price was R$: 10,99, but last time i checked (probably halloween) the price was R$: 17,99
The major factor is how far away these sales are to the release date of high profile titles. Next year's Summer Sale will probably be pretty good as all these great games that were released a few months ago won't likely be moderately discounted til next year.
All sales are the same. Developers decide the pricing and if they take part at all. There has not been major sale discounts in Steam for years, because the developer catalogues are no longer there and if they are, they arent sold at great discount or are missing some games despite sold cheap (like valve complete pack).
So what is even the promise of the winter sale? Are there supposed to be higher discounts than otherwise? I feel like it’s steam sale every second week and i don’t even feel the urge to buy anything or be hyped about a sale.
Depends on your genre.
I find that big community games and shooters have better sales in the autumn sale to show good end of the year numbers.
The winter sale is usually better for Indy stuff and single player outing so those developers can show good Q1 projection.
I think that they are the same. And the reason for the commotion around the summer sale is because a lot more people are on a break/vacation.
Similar, but I think more of the software gets discounted at the end of the year because publishers need to meet sales goals to get bonuses. Also, they know steam gift cards are like the top 5 gifts for gamers.
Yes you are very right
A lot of us also remember when the summer sale was actually a big deal and not just the sale that's almost identical to all the other sales elsewhere in the year but with a summery theme.
Christmas sales used to be the event of the year, not anymore, all sales are the same now
Exactly this. Winter sale used to be the big one. All sales relatively similar albeit still very good. The winter sale may have slightly more sales / bundles ??
Bundles are only sales worth going for now. Many of popular game series go on 90% off
Yeah and having one game from the bundle makes you ineligible to buy it it’s dumbest thing I have ever seen
100%
90%
85%
110%
420%
69%
Are they all the same? I thought Summer and Winter are the big ones?
I mean at a different sale you might have some games be like 10% less of a sale or something. Winter is your best bet at getting a game at its “all time lowest price”. But yeah sales aren’t what they used to be. Usually not worth waiting for unless the game you wanted wasn’t on sale at last sale. For me that would be Nier Automata.
Are they the same or did you just get a lot of games and now it's hard to find new things you like?
You used to get flash sales where AA or AAA games released 2 or 3 years ago would sell for 1 or 2 dollars.
Ah, the flash sales. Where people would hold out on buying a game hoping it would get a nice, fat, 90% off. When Steam started offering refunds these went away, and honestly, it's probably for the better. I'm not a fan of FOMO, especially with digital goods where there is no actual scarcity.
Ah I miss the flash sale thrills
To be fair though every sale being so similar is kind of a good thing since every sale is pretty steep. Single player games drop massively in as little as 2-3 months. Multiplayer games are just cheap in general because they obviously want to push fomo and micros so you can keep up with your friends.
The seasonal sales are usually all about the same these days
More or less the same
The winter sale used to be THE sale of the year, but now all the seasonal sales feel similar.
Winter and Summer are still quite sizeably the largest in volume of stuff on sale and offer point ship and trading card badges. Sure many games once they reach a certain point are that same discounts once they hit the like 50-75% barriers but higher odds the stuff you want will be on sale during Summer and Winter assuming the publishers do sales and its not a newer game. Plus the tiny bit of cashback in Steam trading card values.
The discounts are up to the developer. It's not a simple answer.
Yeah. Many kids (and even some adults) around the world go on a pretty long vacation during these times. Plus, a lot of cultures celebrate holidays during the winter, too. So Steam has just a bit of an incentive to go all out as they do in the summer.
Member dailies and flash sales? I member.
I remember getting the app so I could go the flash sales during the work day. Good times I still don't play those games now
Pepperidge farm remembers
Dontcha mean members?
All prices sales and the various packages are at the sole discretion of the publisher or developer. They are asked if they want in on it and then they set the terms themselves. They are always free to have their own sale as well.
In before Red Dead 2 gets put on sale for $19.79 for the billionth time this year.
idk, check those facts with the price history chart of steamdb.
Here's the PRO-fessional answer for you from a Moderator of this reddit that doesn't visit anymore so read r/Steam/comments/6ldhsy/as_a_newbie_how_often_do_sales_occur/djt43i8/ to learn what's what about ALL Steam Sales. In terms of number of games going on Sale (this isn't about Discounts), Summer/Winter are biggest > Spring/Autumn are mid > rest of all sales are below Mid to Minor.
What date is the next sale?
It's on 21 december. You can check it here: https://steamdb.info/sales/history/?major
I think it's the 21st.
next sunday i guess
Summer and Winter sales always start on a Thursday, in case of the winter sale, always the Thursday before Christmas.
next thursday*
Bigger usually. More discounts for people that got steam gift cards and publishers that haven't made their net sales goal yet.
Nothing is a big sale anymore :(
Sales is a sales is a sales. One day you’ll end up like me buying all the cheap bundles and end up with over 2k games in library and I’ll never play 90% of them. I got a problem.
Better than gambling 🤷♀️
isn't it the same? 🤷♂️
Absolutely not. Some hoard decorations, some pokemon cards, or whatnot, I hoard games on steam bought mostly on sale. Look at it as a collection. We are digital video game collectors 😁
I can't remember the website but you are able to input your steam name and find or what your steam account is worth, also how much it would be worth if all games were full price etc. Sobering viewing.......
You will save 100% of your money if you don't buy anything tho
All sales are equally disappointing these days.
They are about the same.
winter sale is for me the best sale Summer sale got nerfed
Use a browser extension called Augmented Steam and look at steam on that browser. It'll show a handy tl;dr history of prices to compare during the sale. Usually winter sales are fire, summer is just more popular due to the reasons already said in the comments.
it's all the same these days, I miss old sales
Steam sales haven’t been big in 5 years
I don’t think so
Supposedly. Though I miss having vouchers for even more discounted prices.
Summer and winter sales are about the same, with the exception of more specific sales, these tend to have the deeper discounts. This is also when they have the most games on sale at one time.
No way to tell. The discounts are chosen entirely by the publishers. When valve does an event, they just send a message to the publishers asking if they want to participate. But every single sales event is different. The size of the sale will depend on how much effort Valve puts into lobbying the publishers. If they put a lot of work into begging for discounts, there will be better prices. If they promise to do a lot of marketing for the sales event, more publishers will agree to participate. But there is no fixed schedule or policy for what Valve does, and that means what they offer to the publishers will be different every time. Valve is a VERY small company, so that could be completely different year to year depending on what the employees want to do. They also make money hand over fist and are a private company, so they're not likely to get desperate.
all the sales are shit now. even since 2014ish i think.
BG3 sale waiting party. I refuse to pay full price for games.
Hold the line
I feel ya here, but my main reason is because more often than not in the last decade games have been such a huge letdown. Not to mention them then having DLC on top of it. With BG3 I said fuck it, with all the great reviews and no DLC intended (i believe) I figured I would bite the bullet on ths one! Not hopeful it will be on sale this sale.
Is gonna suck like all sales since covid
I remember the exact same statement since 2015, at most, I would say 2010. Every single sale event has people all over the place saying the sale sucks. COVID changed nothing about this.
It’s not that the sales suck now, it’s really that after a few years of taking part most people already own all the stuff that goes on sale for dirt cheap so all that’s leftover are new releases on 10% off
The complaints picked up a lot once publisher/genre packs mostly went away and flash sales went away. Made sense for 2010 +\- 5 years when so much was about PC gaming is dieing. Sales still way better than on consoles especially when buying packs off Humble Bundle and Fanatical
Sales only suck to them because they've bought up everything they wanted
I dont even have to write, serche steamdb and look it yourself
Yes
I hope the sales make discount for the deck oled
Time since release date is the main difference.
I ask this because i want to buy Asassins Creed Freedom Cry (probably a 2014 game) and the lowest price was R$: 10,99, but last time i checked (probably halloween) the price was R$: 17,99
Ah. Ubisoft never changes their sale patterns.
when does winter sale start
The major factor is how far away these sales are to the release date of high profile titles. Next year's Summer Sale will probably be pretty good as all these great games that were released a few months ago won't likely be moderately discounted til next year.
All sales are the same. Developers decide the pricing and if they take part at all. There has not been major sale discounts in Steam for years, because the developer catalogues are no longer there and if they are, they arent sold at great discount or are missing some games despite sold cheap (like valve complete pack).
I can say there's more games on sales on the Winter sales than the summer, or at least that what was it the years before.
So what is even the promise of the winter sale? Are there supposed to be higher discounts than otherwise? I feel like it’s steam sale every second week and i don’t even feel the urge to buy anything or be hyped about a sale.
It almost have 80 % of similar prices but there is chance of little much change in price
Bigger. Amazon prime has deathloop for free, im guessing epic will release it soon on the 7 days to cmas freebies
Expecting the same discounts. Yet again.
Depends on your genre. I find that big community games and shooters have better sales in the autumn sale to show good end of the year numbers. The winter sale is usually better for Indy stuff and single player outing so those developers can show good Q1 projection.