Steam Summer Sale Guide: How to Fix the Love-Hate Relationship

Well, when it comes to all the love the Steam Summer Sale receives, it’s not difficult to pinpoint why. People like saving money, and in some cases during the sale, they can save up to 90% on games they’ve wanted since release. With flash sales and new deals every day, the sale is exciting, and allows people to grab a lot of games for very little money. They can save more than they spend while building quite a collection, although even with 70%, 80%, and 90% off, it ultimately does add up.

Far Cry 3 for only $7.49?! What an amazing deal. Wait, how did I spend $42.55?…There lies the problem- we all get a little carried away sometimes. Now I know what you’re thinking. You think I’m going to scold the community on frivolous spending and that Steam is like Walmart where people fall prey to low prices, feed the corporate machine, then complain about it like hypocrites, so spending less is the only solution blah, blah, blah. Well, you would be entirely incorrect. In fact, I think that’s the worst way to approach this conundrum.

You see, we may hate throwing our wallets at the Steam Store, but mathematically speaking, we’re the ones who are winning. The consumer can really come out ahead, even if we don’t always feel like it. The problem people seem to have that creates this grand dichotomy between “I love low prices.” and “I just bought 31 games, kill me.” is that we aren’t really seeing the big picture, and aren’t planning for the Steam Summer Sale accordingly.

Think of this event kind of like people who buy all the Christmas decorations on clearance the week after Christmas. If you need something, then wait for an opportune moment, you’re rewarded by saving money. It’s a very simple concept, but it applies directly to the sale. All we really have to do to eliminate the hatred from our equation here is to use the Steam Summer Sale for what it is- an opportunity.

Seven dollars well spent. You know, I was going to pick it up anyway, so I guess I really did save. Maybe this sale isn’t so evil after all…Let’s say you’ve been waiting a whole year to pick up a new Triple-A title. Well, it’s here… for five dollars. You can view that as a waste all you want, but if you were going to buy it anyway, that’s a great purchase. If you plan your game purchases around the time of the Steam Summer Sale, and buy a good bit of your PC games through it, you’ll save a sizable chunk of money overall. All you have to do is switch your purchasing patterns around a bit, and this monumental sale will in fact save you money throughout the year. Let’s face it, you were going to buy however many games this year anyway, so just crowd up the schedule a bit when it comes summer time.

If done properly, you won’t need to buy any games for a long time afterwards, unless of course you paced yourself like some sort of amateur that probably makes Walmart analogies. Probably complains about Gabe Newell mugging him every summer too. Anyway, my advice to bring the Steam Summer Sale to nothing but a positive time of year is to actually go a bit crazy. If you think you’ll buy it at some point, buy it now. It’s the rest of the year where you should be limiting yourself. Don’t end up paying full price 3 months from now on something you didn’t want to grab at an 85% discount. Just give in to the irresistible deals and flashy presentation and it’ll pay off, assuming you only buy games that you’ll actually play, and then buy less throughout the year accordingly. Overall, this saves money and allows for the enjoyment of this semi-holiday, without all the wallet-burning hate we normally feel.

With that, I wish you luck as we all join together to rummage through the virtual bargain bin. Feel free to grab everything you’ll want to play for the next 6 months, because we all know it’ll cost more to not do it that way. Remember, to Steam Summer Sale responsibly……. or not.