Steam Sale In A Different View

For some people, the annual Steam sale summer sale offer an amazing event that allows them to spend less money on fantastic titles: appealing to those on a tight budget.  After looking through this year’s summer sale, however, my friends brought something to my attention that made me look at these amazing offers in a negative light. Deals that repeat themselves, overlooked retailers, and encouraged spending after several big releases that already happened this year that require time and money. It’s hard to argue against Steam and their notorious and popular summer sale, but I’ve decided to take the challenge and play devil’s advocate.

When I first looked at the games offered during the first week of the sale I wasn’t amazed or disappointed. A lot of games I assumed would be discounted were. Games like Value’s notorious Left 4 Dead series was there as well as games like Antichamber and Don’t Starve. By no means are any of these awful, but I was expecting something different. Of course great games like Far Cry 3 and Borderlands 2 were reduced to less than $19.99 and we had the community voting system to choose the next sale. But nothing unexpected happen, yes a few Indie titles were introduced as the sale went on, but most of the time I saw myself overlooking old titles that I saw last sale and collecting cards. Maybe I’ll finally get my Rockstar’s collection pack.

The Steam Sale does tend to overshadow other sites that provide similar sales that provide similar or better offers. Green Man Gaming, Amazon, and Good Old Games each had their own summer sale and provided similar titles that Steam offered. Sometimes these retailers even beat Steam with things like Dead Space 3, unavailable on Steam, for $19.99, and even free titles (not free-to-play). Steam is an extraordinary digital distribution platform that connects millions of people to an alarming amount of content, but this doesn’t mean other retailers don’t have similar or better deals.

The biggest burden is time and money. The fall season is when the newest titles are introduced for the upcoming holiday season, and this year we see the next-generation of consoles coming. Consumers can easily be mesmerized by all the discounts and unknowingly spend more than they expected, draining their funds on older titles and having nothing to spend on the upcoming lineup. Also the time it would take to play through all those titles you spend your hard earn money on would definitely reduce your free time, after all you paid for these games with the full intention of playing them. The time and money put into their titles could lead you to exhausting all your spare time, unless all your purchases were for other people, casual playing, trading cards, or simply to build up your library.

I’m not arguing against the Steam Sale, I still think it’s the best means for users to get the optimal deals during the summer. But if you looking to the next-generation of consoles or the fall lineup of new titles like Watch_Dogs and Dark Souls 2, then this sale may of drained those necessary funds, unless you’re not a PC gamer. But it’s interesting to look at something that is overwhelmingly popular and look at it from a different angle or vise versa. And if you already purchase some of the triple-A titles to come of this year, as discussed in my article “Games to play this Summer,” then you’ll have to talk with your family and friends on why you’ve been ignoring them for so long.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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