It’s that time of the year again. No, we’re not talking about another season of The Bear,though that has quickly become a summer tradition. Instead, we’re talking about the annualSteamSummer Sale, a time in which games usually cost less than a snack at the convenience store.
Keyword: usually. That’s because,according to these avid Steam users, this year’s sale is very “mid,“despite once again offering hundreds of games at ridiculously low rates.
The Annual Steam Summer Sale Ain’t What It Used To Be, I Tell You What
Taking to Reddit, over 2,000 users discussed a topic titled “Worse than Spring Sale,” with many finding themselves in agreement over this year’s offerings.
Among some of the marquee discounts include theOblivion Remakefor 20 percent off andElden Ringfor 40 percent off, along iwth all-time low prices for classics likeMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxyor theCrash Bandicoot trilogy.
“Nowadays, the random ‘Today’s Deal’ get a lot more record lows than the actual big sales,“one user wrote in response.
Elsewhere,another user highlighted a central issuethat comes with any kind of sale, especially in this digital age. “The annoying part is some games having the exact same discount for years. Like bro, your game has 6 years, I think you can drop below 50% already.”
Some users were particularly disgruntled that, despite having been released in 2019, Sekiro is almost eternally never on a deep enough discount. “Our wallets are safe, boys!“one user wrote, pointing to the single silver lining that happens when a sale is mediocre.
“Steam sales ain’t what they used to be, that’s for sure,“another gamer wrote. “Back in the day, I remember major titles getting up to like 90% off. Now it’s like even with the sales, almost none of the major titles are any cheaper than $20-40 still.”
That’s a rather fair point. For instance, even at a 25 percent discount,Assassin’s Creed Shadows is still $52.49, which is pretty much close to the full price gamers were used to paying a generation ago. That figures to get worse as games continue to shift to the new $80 price point, where a 15 percent discount would essentially put them at the $69.99 price we had for much of this generation.
