Voices coming to me from the western winds tell me that the time has come again, that the Steam Summer Sale is nigh. Now, it’s been a while since the S³ of 2012, where the prices were so rock bottom you walked away with about 20 triple-A titles for less than 30 bucks, but the S³ is still the best time to load up on the games you’re gonna be playing for the next few months.
Or until the Steam Winter Sale.
But there are fucking RULES to the Steam sale mechanics, all right? You gotta do this shit right if you want to ensure the best deal. I will outline the steps.
1. Find a good place that will list all the daily deals. I use /r/gamedeals, which will have a daily post with everything on discount. I hear Cheapshark is also good.
2. Understand there are three kinds of deals.
You have the normal deals, which last from the beginning to the end of the S³. They will be marked down from day one and will remain so until the final day. DO NOT BUY THESE UNTIL THE FINAL DAY. Sometimes a game marked down 35% on Tuesday will be a Flash Deal for 75% Wednesday. Speaking of:
You will have the Daily Deals. This is a block of ~10 games marked down for 48 hours with a new block ever 24 hours. This means at any given time, two blocks will be on sale. As each expires, another takes its place. These are usually a safe buy.
The spanner in the mix are the Flash Deals. Flash Deals last… 8? Or 12 hours? I think? They are the steepest discounts, sometimes up to 90%. You have to check in twice a day to see what’s for sale. ALWAYS BUY THESE WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING YOU WANT.
The rule of thumb is that if you want Game X, but it’s just on normal sale, wait until the final day to get it to ensure it doesn’t end up going for cheaper in a Daily or Flash Deal. Understand? Cool.
3. Other stores WILL be competing with the S³. Always check prices on other sites and compare before buying. Steam’s best competitors who can be counted to try to out-do Steam are Amazon’s downloadable game section, GOG, and GreenManGaming. Both are good places, and GMG has discount codes that can take an extra 15 to 25% off your game.
4. PROTIP: If you want to buy a game but think it may go for cheaper later, buy it as a gift. Then, you can keep one copy for trade and if the game goes for cheaper later, get it for yourself then.
That’s everything I can remember. I still doubt we will see a S³ like we did two years ago (where I went from two steam games to about fifteen and spent less than 50 bucks) but it’ll still be good shit.
Go forth and prosper, PC nerds
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