Steam Announces 2024 Summer Sale, And Threatens Us With “Deep Discounts”

Steam has officially announced this year’s Summer Sale date.

As they have revealed on Twitter, the sale will run from June 27 to July 11, 2024, with sales going live at 10 AM Pacific. Steam timed it just right to cap the end of this year’s E3-less E3 season, which saw big presentations from Microsoft, Nintendo, Summer Games Fest, and others.

A lot of the games announced in that shows amount to huge promissory notes, but with the hope that consumers are excited now, Valve hopes to capitalize by getting gamers to buy a few games now.

Valve’s Summer Sale trailer featured some notable titles, including Palworld, iRacing, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Manor Lords, Stellaris, and Batman: Arkham Knight, so if you still hadn’t picked those titles up yet waiting for a sale, this might be the moment that you were waiting for.

Valve also announced a new category they are introducing called Deep Discounts, though they did not elaborate what this means. The thing is, games go on discount to as low as 90 % on Steam all the time. If Valve is announcing this as something new, they have to have some sort of hook to make it interesting.

So, is this possibly a thing where they make deep discounts for users who regularly buy games full price? Is this a thing where your individual consumer buying habits are factored in for Valve to offer personalized sales to you? Or could it be something where games get sold for cheaper when you buy them as part of a bundle, and those bundles are once again made personalized for you? Valve already offers bundles where buying games together are cheaper than if they’re bought individually.

If it’s just a new marketing campaign to put the highlight on specific games, it may not be that radical an idea, but that could also work out for Valve just fine.

On the side, Valve is also offering new discounts now for their hardware, the Steam Deck. The 64 GB and 512 GB Steam Deck LCD models are 15 % off from now until July 11, 10 AM Pacific. Availability for this particular sale varies per region, but if you happen to be eligible, it may be worth your while, even if you already have a unit. You can check out the Steam Deck summer sale here.

You can watch the Steam Summer Sale trailer below.