🚀 go-pugleaf

Apparently tomorrow (June 22nd) we'll see the start of the annual
Steam Summer Sale. Am I the only one who feels a lack of excitement
about this news?

In part, it is because I feel a bit "saled out". Between GOG, Humble
Bundle and BundleStars (not to mention the occasional specials on
UPlay and Origin), it feels not a week has gone by in the past few
months that there hasn't been one or more seasonal sales. I suppose
all this competition for my hard-earned cash is a good thing, but the
main emotion I feel these days when I learn of another sale is "Oh
god, another one?" and not "Oooh, I wonder what goodies I can get this
time!".

But it doesn't help that Steam sales have been so disappointing over
the past few years. Back when Steam was still working to position
itself as the premier PC gaming storefront, they would offer some
significant discounts to draw people in. You'd find games for
outrageously low prices that you'd only see during these seasonal
sales. These days, the discounts aren't any better than you'd find
during their regular weekly sales - there are just more games
discounted. This means there is no driving need for me to buy during
the summer sale; I can just wait until that game gets the same
discount five or six weeks later. 

And honestly, Steam's prices - even when discounted - just aren't that
competitive anymore.  A 10% sale on a $60 game isn't that impressive,
not when I might find that same game for 75% off at BundleStars.
While my Steam library continues to grow, I almost never buy directly
from Valve anymore; it's almost always through a key-reseller like
HumbleBundle. They don't even put the same effort and excitement into
the sale either; no daily discounts, no fun games; it's dull and
barely worth opening the steam client. Back in the day, I'd visit the
storefront almost hourly; now I can barely be bothered to visit once
or twice during the whole sale.

Of course, the quality of games is an issue too. The Summer Sale was
never the time to get the hot new games - summer is the dry season for
game releases after all - but it was an opportunity to grab the
exciting titles from last season that you missed out on. But the Steam
storefront is so cluttered with early access and indie titles that
it's a chore to wade through the hundreds of crappy 99-cent titles in
hopes of finding the one or two worthy games.

I wonder how much of this is a concern to Valve, though. Do they worry
that they are losing their grip on their customers, or are they secure
in their Walmart-ian dominance of PC game sales? I guess if we get
another uninspired sale, it's evidence of the latter.

Well, who knows; maybe I'll pick up one or two games this sale. But
I've no expectations in that direction.