Every time a new Steam sale comes around, people say they’re done. Their libraries are full of unplayed games already. Their wallets are dry. The specials aren’t good enough. And then they go and drop another $20, $30, $50, $100 or more on a bunch of games.
With the latest round of Steam discounts having come to a close, how did you fare?
I ended up not expecting to buy a whole lot, and ended up spending about $50 on a bunch of games that I’d had my eye on for a while.
I don’t know whether it was worth it. I bought the Dawn of War Master Collection, but I’ve hit a bit of a brick wall with Dark Crusade. Drawful 2 was worth the wait — any Jackbox fan should pick it up — but I’m yet to properly invest the time into The Secret World to justify the $US20 I dropped on it.
Maybe I should have just resubscribed to The Old Republic if I wanted to play an MMO.
What about yourselves? Did you resist the urge to splurge? And are Steam sales really worth it these days?
Comments
51 responses to “The Big Question: Steam Sales”
Fable Anniversary for nostalgia and that’s it.
Personally, thought it was their weakest sale in a very long time.
Totally agree, didn’t buy a single title. Was hoping to grab Hyper Light Drifter or Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, or really anything decent, but didn’t get a single thing.
Games with 50% off, converted into Australian dollar, felt like normal Australian recommended retail pricing with 10% off…
bought nothing 1) already have too many games to play 2) the specials dont seem that special any more 3) the fun of flash sales is gone, so there is no reason to religiously check back for a surprise 4) STEAM looks like $2 dvd section of an Discount Shop now days. Their front page is uninspiring and full of trash.
They are despicable. Anyone who has purchased a game from Steam is funding child gambling.
lolwhat
I think you’re been hitting the stubbies too soon, champ.
No. I’m wearing pants.
They knowingly allow kids to gamble CSGO skins that are traded for money IRL.
And where are the parents?
Following that same logic means I can blame fast food for my weight and not myself and I my family can take Danos Direct to court if anyone kills me with knifes bought from them.
And why not stop there? I enjoy anime so does that mean I’m funding illegal whaling?
No on all counts.
At the moment I agree – never mind violence in games, once the mainstream media wakes up to this whole skins gambling caper (which incidentally I learned about not from Kotaku or Eurogamer, but Lateline of all places) then politician censoring violence in games will seem like the good old days!
TLDR – if Valve don’t fix their shit they will quickly go from a status of being the Industry Saint to looking worse than Zynga
Yeah, just bought a couple things that I’ve wanted but not for full price.
I expect most people are over the ‘buy it just because it’s cheap’ mentality.
In the past I’ve bought a whole bunch of titles that I didn’t really want. Some of those remain unplayed to this day. So I tried something different this year – instead of buying a stack of heavily discounted games I might never touch, I did some digging and found Brigador – an awesome looking indie game that wasn’t on sale – and paid full price for it. Based on the soundtrack alone I think I made a good choice!
Yeah I started playing Remember Me last month…. Bought it years ago on Steam.
0 bought but I am interested in like 2 or 10
that game Sega just took over and a few other sandboxes
Personally, Steam sales don’t interest me anymore. It seems like the same 20 titles on repeat. I scroll down a bit, then eventually just give up. I’d prefer bigger discounts that go for shorter periods (ie flash sales).
Having said that… we had a boozy laptop LAN on Saturday while the girls made cocktails. Being able to pick up games like Chivalry, DoW:Retribution, L4D2 etc for super cheap was pretty cool.
The aussie dollar is a big reason why i don’t buy in steam, that and the fact i have very little money to be spending on games.
I only bought the Dying Light DLC The Following during the sales.
This. There’s no point when I can buy all the same games for cheaper here because of the Aussie dollar. I’m not really keen to buy off steam because of that reason. It’s annoying to have to convert the currency value first to know what I’ll have to pay.
Bought nothing. Very uninspiring sale. The only games I’m interested in at the moment had pretty crappy price reductions. Seen better in the past. So, I’ll just wait it out and continue to play my existing games.
I think I bought more games than I did last year, mostly due to the fact that I had more money to burn. However I bought only 2 games from my wishlist, got more games through the queue thing.
I had just handed my old gaming PC over to my son. Its his first gaming PC so I felt like i should provide him a starting collection for his steam library and got a few things for him. I must say it felt like a pretty average sale tbh though.
Had 6 games on my shortlist, ended up getting 3 of them.
Super Mega Baseball Allstars
Wolfenstein New Order
Subnautica
Ended up getting doom from Ebgames.
Games I didnt get
Just Cause 3 – even though i have a new rig its appparently still shitty and gameplay is the same old stuff
GTA5 – finished it on ps3, was looking to get it for PC but wasnt cheap enough
Transformers Devastron – meh
I agree with most other people…the sales just aren’t that great anymore (due to a few factors). Id rather wait and pay $60-$100 for the next new game that comes out to be able to play it at that time than spend $50-$100 on games that I may or may not play as id still probably get the new games anyway.
that and I’m not too keen on the Steam/valve business model these days anyways from a consumer point of view (from a business point of view it is a fantastic money maker so hats off to them for that)…they seem to have just become this enormous corporate machine with little care for the gamers who got them there in the first place. But I guess that is progress for you.
The steam sales certainly got me looking for bargains, in the end i bought an Assassins creed for $9 at EB and a heap of cars & tracks in Raceroom from their separate store.
Once you do the AUD to USD conversion a lot of the bargains weren’t really bargains at all.
Also bought Ass Creed Unity from EB $9 (awesome price!). Rage quitted around Chapter 6 due to weird design issues I didn’t like and the fact there is 4 currencies to keep track of WTF.
Almost bought Watch Dogs as well for $9, but it would just be another game that I wouldn’t really play.
Finally got round to picking up Witcher 3 as well $35, which I promised myself I wouldn’t buy until I finished Witcher 2, which I bought for full price day 1. Sigh.
I haven’t yet played Unity, it will sit on the pile for a while, but it was just too cheap to walk past. Even if I get bored of it 4 or 5 hours in, I will still have definitely got my $9 worth.
I tried witcher 2 for about 8h but just couldn’t get into it, I tried just before W3 released and it just wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. Witcher 3 was though, it was exactly what I was hoping for so don’t let W2 hold you back if you start losing interest, look up a story summary of W1 and W2 on youtube, get the back story and then hook into 3!
Got the first Ass Creed for $5 last night on 360 back compat with X1!
About $5.
I got:
A Boy and His Bloob
Leo’s Fortune.
Played about 10mins of each.
Not overly competitive on the bigger titles any more, so I save up all the money I’ve made idling while I watch internet TV and get a bunch of cheaper items for free. This time it was Pony Island, Lakeview Cabin, Party Hard and Crypt of the Necrodancer.
Would have had more but had bought Ark with cards a few weeks before.
steam sales are dead since that whole changeover where they got rid of flash sales, etc…
I got Sunless Sea (I’m playing a lot of Fallen London at the moment so there’s some cross-over content), Stardew Valley (of course), and Vector 36. Used my Steam Wallet funds from card selling, so only ended up spending ~$20. I’m happy with that.
Vector 36 is awesome.
Played Sunless Sea when it was free one weekend, and I found the text so small as to be unreadable on my 46 inch TV. I think they were going to address this at some stage, I hope they do as it’s one I’m keen on picking up next sale.
Games made in the last 5 years – there are better deals elsewhere
Games that are usually 10-20 dollars, discounted to $2.50 is an easy choice
Picked up the Warhammer Vermintide game with a friend and had a crack at it. Was pretty fun.
I found it quite good. Some of the deals were worth it and I was willing to take a bit more risk thanks to the 2 hour refund window. I bought the below:
SOMA (finished this already, fantastic game!)
Outlast (Playing at the monent, 1hr 30 mins in. Enjoying a lot so won’t be refunding)
Payday 2
Mark of the Ninja (Played an hour and it wasn’t my cup of tea, refunded it)
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Bioshock 1 + 2 + Minerva’s Den (In prep for the upcoming remasters being released for free in September.)
Miasmata
I bought a total of 0 games for $0.
Better deals elsewhere…I avoid Steam for all but a few indie titles (early access mostly) I can only get on Steam. Other than that I can get better discounts and pay in AUD on other sites.
Picked up Tales of Symphonia and Elder Scrolls Online but that’s it.
I’ll get around to them one day.
Really weak sale – managed to avoid buying anything
There were still plenty of bargains and lots of excellent cheap games.
I grabbed: 10000000, You Must Build A Boat (very cheap, fun and easy to play)
Invisible Inc (played a few hours, looks good)
Hitman Go (nice simple puzzle game)
Legends of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (been wanting this for a while)
The actual sale itself was ok, had over a dozen games from my wishlist at more than 75% off
All I got was AC:Black flag and a clicky clicky death game Victor Vran
I generally used the sale to grab smaller things that look interesting but not sure at full price. Paying $2.50 for a game I don’t like is ok, but paying $10 is annoying.
There does seem to be a small reduction on big discounts on new titles but I think people are forgetting how low some of the discounts were in previous flash sales.
My feeling is that 2 weeks is too long for the sale, when there is no difference between day 1 and day 14 having it run for so long is kind pointless (For consumers, for valve it means another $100,000 from trading card sales)
I bought Rise of Nations and Tale of the Dragon DLC (Age of Mythology), total cost about US$7.50 I think to complete my Microsoft RTS collection. I have so many unplayed games from humble bundle collections that there is no need anymore. I’ve had my eye on Talos Principle for a while now, but even at 75% off and US$9.99 its still too much. I am so cheap, but I compare everything to humble bundles so I rarely spend much on a single game anymore. It’s a crazy world for sure.
I got Prison Architect. Damn, what a game. I stayed up all night playing it. Haven’t done that for years.
Zippo. With over 700 games in my steam library, I made a pact with myself not to buy anything during this summer sale and the previous christmas sale. I feel better for it, the list of un-played games is going down and my wallet appreciates the non-buying as well. At my worst, I would spend upwards of $200 during a steam sale in the past. Last time I brought something on a steam sale was summer last year. I have purchased the odd game here and there over the year, but thats it.
I’ve just finished making a pc and have a vive on the way so grabbed about 10 vr games that I was going to grab anyway. This plus rise of the tombraider and garrys mod
I got Left4dead2 for 3 dollars. Never played it before but put in a few hours with a friend over the weekend. Great game.
I also thought it very disappointing. Without the flash sales, no fun.
But saying that, I introduced Steam to a friend this year and this was his first Steam sale and he was so happy. I think he bought about 200 dollars worth of games. Maybe we’re all jaded from too much Steam sales joy.
Had 22 games on wishlist, purchased 6 + 2 DLC’s for about $75 AUD
None of the others were low enough
Yeah, bought a few. Had three games on my wishlist and there were all on sale, so picked them up: Darkest Dungeon, Chaos Reborn and Far Cry Primal.
Prior to the first ever Steam Sale, I’d already pretty much spent a LOT of money on Steam, somewhere in the thousands. So the first sale was a downer because everything I’d wanted, I’d already bought. This has continued with each sale, I’ve already bought what I wanted at release or from my wishlist when that game inevitably went on sale.
Now, with the infusion of so many unknown games the quality of what was on offer had dropped… or, more fairly, the quality of my research to determine the quality of these random unknown games had dropped.
This was the first Steam sale where I didn’t buy a single thing (but convinced many friends to buy many games they otherwise would never have played).
Managed to pinch off G-mod for 2.50 and Portal 2 (!) for 5.00.
Nothing else.
Games still felt expensive.
0.
Still haven’t played the games I bought from the last sale.