The Steam Summer Sale is Here – No Need to Applaud

It’s Steam’s summer sale again, and as always it crashed under the weight of bargain hunters checking their wish lists. If they were anything like me, they came away disappointed.

It’s a well-chewed truism now taht Steam sales aren’t what they used to be. The removal of flash sales and other bonuses that made Steam’s offering standout had turned it into just another set of discounts. Usually the biggest benefit is that other stores also reduce their prices around the same time.

The loss of the traditional Steam sale – with its blink-and-you-miss them bargains – is a real shame. There was something brilliantly egalitarian about PC gaming 10 or 15 years ago. Now the best you can say is that it’s cheaper than consoles.

The landscape has changed though. In June alone, I’ve bought 15 games. They cost me about a pound each. For the price of a takeaway, I’ve unlocked hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of entertainment. I did this through Humble, through the CD Keys flash sale, through Fanatical. These are AAA games, although granted most are a few years old now. The incredible bargains haven’t gone anywhere. PC gaming is still the way to go for the price conscious. My list of new games includes brands like Mortal Kombat, Robocop and Middle-Earth, as well as the Legacy of Kain remasters.

I’ll not play any of them. I’ll probably buy 15 more games in July. Isn’t that just the way?

The point here is that the Steam Sale has gone the way of the dodo. And while the initial few minutes is always a buggy mess, the web is soon filled with comments equating to “meh”. For those who don’t know how to shop around, that might be a problem. For the rest of us? We get the bargains as they come to us.

Highlights from the Steam Summer Sale

Who am I kidding? There’s no way I’m not going to pick up a couple of games in the Summer Sale.

Crypt of the Necrodancer is too good to say no to at just over a quid, and the Crash N Sane collection for £3.50 is a lot of game for not very much money. It’s on Game Pass, but the Steam version is platinum rated for Steam Deck. That might be a blessing or a curse, depending how likely you are to toss your controller during the harder bits.

If you have to buy from Steam, Cyberpunk is worth looking at. The Ultimate edition has never been cheaper on there, although that’s not saying much. You’ll still be paying nearly £40.

The Dead Space remake is down to a tenner. In fact, there’s a lot of fantastic games below that bracket, and I’d suggest taking a quick look at the Under £7 and Under £4 categories.

As usual, follow the simple Steam Sale rules. Check gg.deals and don’t rush into buying anything you don’t want. The sales don’t change, so you have time to mull it all over.

The Steam Sales might not be what they once were, but there’s still bargains to be had.