Steam Holiday Sale 2014

Now before you go off to buy all those games you never got to, here are some things that you should consider:

• Keep a careful watch of the Flash Sale and the Community Choice. The Flash Sales last 12 hours and show deals for 6 games. The Community's Choice lasts 12 hours and is dictated by 3 sales that are put up for a vote. The game that gets the most votes will have a sale for a set amount of time, until the next Community Choice sale. Then, of course, there are the Featured Sales, which last for 48 hours.
  
  
• Don't jump to buy a game that is part of the sale simply because it's on Sale. The Flash Sale and the Community's Choice may yield a better discount than a standard Steam Sale discount. Patience can be your greatest tool when looking for the best deal. Watch for Daily Deals, of course, but Flash Deals and Community's Choice should take precedence, as they often yield the best discounts the sale has to offer.
  
  
• While the Steam Sale is nice, it may also be smart to look to other sites for better deals. GreenmanGaming, Gamers Gate, Nuuvem, G2A, and Getgames are just a few examples that always have incredible deals, so don't limit yourself. In fact, these sites often have competitive discounts specifically because Steam is having their annual sale, so they are certainly worth checking out. Having said that, keep the previous tip in mind.
  
  
• Put games on your wishlist. If there's a game you really want and you don't want to have to keep looking at the Steam Sale for a better deal, put the game on your wishlist so that you will get e-mails about deals for games on your wishlist. If you want a more immediate and versatile means of getting deals, isthereanydeal.com allows you to import your Steam Wishlist (or just search for games) and have deals from a plethora of trusted sites and Steam emailed to you. What's more, you can check the deal price against the lowest the price for that specific game has ever gone, letting you know if you're getting a good deal. The site is highly recommended.

Now, some of you may notice that Flash Sales and, by extension, Community Sales are a bit different this year. This is because, along with the relatively recent change in the Steam UI, the sale itself has been reworked. Flash Sales are nowhere to be seen, and in place of Daily Sales are Featured Sales, which last two days (which, all things considered, isn't that different from Daily Sales, considering they lasted two days, anyway). Community's Choice also lasts longer.

As this is the first day, how things will pan out is unclear, but for now this is still a valid guideline if you really want to save money this Holiday Sale, and remember, if you see a tantalizing standard deal:


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Feel free to discuss the sale. What have you bought so far? What are you planning to buy? Are there any under-the-radar deals that you want to share? Also, if you have any tips or advice that you find useful, by all means share it. After all, one useful tip could make all the difference.

Thanks for the advice to appreciate even more that wonderful time of the internet year!

I love isthereanydeal. I love/hate how often they email me and I had to filter them into their own folder, but I love that they clue you in on all the deals. Especially because Steam seems to forget to email me when my wishlist games are on sale. If there's a 90% sale they won't tell me, but if it's 15% off they send like 4 emails.

Anyhow. I'm poking my head in to suggest using Enhanced Steam if you don't already. It's available as an enhancement to the standalone browser, or in Firefox and Chrome. It has more features in Chrome than FF, though. This is especially useful during sales because it'll tell you the historical lows on the store page, and the current lowest price.
Yes, yes, this sounds exactly like what ITAD does. But it does it from the steam store pages so you don't have to swap tabs and look up the game on another site. It has a few other useful functions, too, like exempting games you already own from the search.
Wanna see all 6,000 sales? Want to NOT browse through pages of games that are already in your library while you do it? Lol.

And also it tells you how much a badge will cost to craft and how much you'll get from selling it instead, all on the badges page, without perusing the market for each card. So that's nice when you're idling for cards for some extra spending money like I do, haha.


Oh. oh oh oh.
As tempting as Dark Souls 2 is for 63% off, you might want to wait on DS2.
Don't forget that Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, which is essentially their GOTY version with DLCs, was announced to release early April.
Not to mention it splits the player base. Like how owners of the "old" version won't be able to play MP with owners of the "new" version.

Soyeah, might be better to wait a little bit. I'm sure most of you have quite the backlog to hold you over til it's half off for the GOTY version in the summer sale, anyway. :P

I'm not all too concerned about finding deals on games that have been on my wishlist. I'm fine with paying the full retail price (especially for indie titles), but if a sale on a game happens to coincide with my desire to purchase it, that's always nice. I've been thinking of getting Freedom Planet as of late since I found the demo to be wicked fun -- it plays a lot like the Sonic games from the Genesis era.

I'm gonna buy Wasteland while it's 1.49 instead 5.99. Such bargain hunt am i!

I learned of this Nuuvem site through Kotaku (weird since the site is from my country). They currently have the Batman games on 90% off. I feel bad for having bought them in the Black Friday Steam sale for more.

Cerberus87 said:

I learned of this Nuuvem site through Kotaku (weird since the site is from my country). They currently have the Batman games on 90% off. I feel bad for having bought them in the Black Friday Steam sale for more.

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Yeah, Nuuvem's great. I've been able to get games for pretty low prices pre-release, and they're pretty quality. Spanish and its sibling languages aren't exactly my forte, but the often has some of the best deals, especially for new and upcoming releases.

I'm fairly concerned about a few games I want getting discounted. Right now, about 93% of my wishlist on Steam is discounted to a degree, but I definitely am holding out for the lowest prices. I've got some income coming in and I'm ready to pull the trigger on a bunch of titles:

The Escapists
Shadow of Mordor
Dead State
TellTale's Game of Thrones
TellTale's Walking Dead: Season 2
Borderlands: Pre-Sequel
PayDay 2

Klippy said:

The Escapists

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There's this, if you're interested.

Converted, it's about $5 or 4 Euros. There might be better deals for it on Steam later, but I just thought I'd mention this.

machomuu said:

There's this, if you're interested.

Converted, it's about $5 or 4 Euros. There might be better deals for it on Steam later, but I just thought I'd mention this.

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Very cool! I always see Nuuvem, but kind of picky on where I put my CC info into. I am sure it's reputable, since a lot of redditors use it. :)

Thanks though! Maybe I'll go pick up a pre-paid Visa to get it if Steam doesn't get lower.

I'm actually laughing. On sale and still about $60. Ubisoft can't even do sales right.

^What makes that more hilarious is that Amazon had Unity for PS4/Xbox/PC for $29.99 just a few days ago.

All the sales I've seen so far have been fairly lackluster. Not having flash sales and staggering the sales into 24 hour, 12 hour, and community choice (which are still only every 24 hours) really has dampened the excitement, and the prices just haven't been great at all.

There's really little I actually want right now anyway. The top sellers are a joke, Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, which is basically a large DLC, Dark Souls 2 which has been out how long? And neither are even cheap.

There are tons of games I want, but the deals aren't there. I need Shadow of Mordor to drop more, TellTale's Game of Thrones, Dead State, and others. :(

But consider that the Sale has barely started. Lots of chances for good stuff to appear.

I knew this year's sale would be too expensive for me! :P


In all seriousness, I'm right there with Klippy. The games I want are mostly on some kind of sale, but it's just not Steam Sale prices. I want 75-90% off, not 25-50%, lol.

Rage looks pretty good, though. I love post-apocalyptic shooter/adventure types. Just not sure if it'd make the top of my backlog or not!

I have a little wish list going, I just don't have money for anything I want lol!

Wilhelm said:

I have a little wish list going, I just don't have money for anything I want lol!

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You got me all curious but I can't stalk your wishlist. Your steam button doesn't take me to your profile. :P

Here's my wishlist for stocking and stalking. ;)

https://steamcommunity.com/id/klippy/wishlist

Klippy said:

Here's my wishlist for stocking and stalking. ;)

https://steamcommunity.com/id/klippy/wishlist

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https://www.g2a.com/weeklysale

Shadows of Mordor for $14. I'd get it quick.

G2A's got some pretty fantastic deals consistently. I'd say they have some of the lowest and are pretty well trusted. All my transactions there have gone smoothly, and I highly recommend 'em.

machomuu said:

https://www.g2a.com/weeklysale

Shadows of Mordor for $14. I'd get it quick.

G2A's got some pretty fantastic deals consistently. I'd say they have some of the lowest and are pretty well trusted. All my transactions there have gone smoothly, and I highly recommend 'em.

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When I click checkout, it says, "unfortunately there is 0 item(s) available". D: