Post Steam Summer Sale Thoughts

Another year, another summer sale on Steam where our PC gaming overlord Gabe Newell promises us discounts on discounts with our wallets bleeding cash harder than if the economy crashes. Every year, people keep spending a decent amount of cash to get those discounts, and usually end up with some great games, and some regrets. This sale, I've got a few thoughts I'd like to share.

THE NEW DISCOUNT PRICING

In case you missed it, South Asia's Steam region got a major update that was particularly notable this sale, as most games updated their prices to more reasonable levels to adjust for South Asian purchasing power.

It's a lot more apparent when the sales come through, the same discounts are significantly greater for us than they are for other regions. Indie games particularly get the best benefit, what with already being relatively cheaper compared to AAA titles on sale, and being the most common type of game to receive a regional price update, some great titles like Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Ori and the Blind Forest etc are all significantly cheaper and you can pick up many of them on a relatively low budget.

Bundles are also a lot cheaper, so getting games with a lot of DLC became a virtual steal. For example, you can get Sid Meier's Civilization V's complete edition for just under $10 and that's an abysmally low amount for the hours you can put into it. The Valve Complete Pack went from $17 on sale to $7 after the region update, and with pricing like that it's almost tempting to splurge a lot more.

SALES FEEL RELATIVELY LIFELESS NOW, BUT AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE

Ever since flash sales disappeared, it's just been fixed discounts for a few weeks, you finish your shopping and that's it. Doesn't feel like a fun event, but Steam this time around tried to introduce more engagement by releasing a browser game called Saliens, which you could play in and enter yourself to win a few games by playing. While the game is really grindy and pretty annoying, it's still some kind of engagement, can't fault them there.

SAVING YOUR SHOPPING FOR THE LAST MINUTE IS A BAD IDEA

Steam gift cards sell out fast during sales. Most stores were sold out within a week, and if you didn't get codes in time, chances are you could miss the entire sale. Going in advance with a few codes saved up from before and some games in mind to get would help you budget better, and probably save you some bucks so you can get some other games on whim purchases.

Nuhan B. Abid is someone who actually thinks puns and sarcasm are top class forms of humour. Tell him that 'sar-chasm' is TOTALLY the best thing ever at nuhanbabid@hotmail.com