Steam Sale - Christmas 2012

[tanker27]

Its on!

So I know there some kind of formula to the Steam sale madness on when you should pull the trigger to buy, I just dont know what it is. For instance I want to buy Dishonored, right now its -25% at 44.99. Is that the best its going to get? How long should I wait to purchase it?

[Dizik]

Chances are that whatever big titles are on the list, such as Dishonored, will more than likely end up on the "in case you missed it" list towards the end of the sale. I remember Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City doing that. Whether or not they go down further in price is yet to be seen.

[paulWTAMU]

w00t!

I gotta say though, I really dislike the "Big Picture" mode on Steam, at least as far as browsing goes. And I'm pissed that hitting "esc" doesn't work to get out of it.

[lilbuddhaman]

Why get dishonored now at $45 when you could get all the other titles you missed at $5-10 and then get dishonored in Feb for $5-10 ?

I was once a "release day" gamer, but you are literally punished for being one these days, given that the "GOTY" or "Ultimate" editions that come 3-6 months later offer all DLC's, all extras, less bugs. The exception of course are MP titles...but ugh, MP titles are the worst offenders for "consolization".

[RealWolf]

So I know there some kind of formula to the Steam sale madness on when you should pull the trigger to buy, I just dont know what it is.

The rule is to only buy daily deals & flash sales until the last day. Newer games have less chance of getting the bigger discounts, but you know Dishonored is going to be 25% off through January 5th, so you might as well wait and see if it goes any cheaper between now and then.

[paulWTAMU]

I was once a "release day" gamer, but you are literally punished for being one these days, given that the "GOTY" or "Ultimate" editions that come 3-6 months later offer all DLC's, all extras, less bugs. The exception of course are MP titles...but ugh, MP titles are the worst offenders for "consolization".

Yeah. It's kind of like slow teasing waiting for them to go on sale but really? Why the hell wouldn't I save 45 bucks.

[tanker27]

I gotta say though, I really dislike the "Big Picture" mode on Steam, at least as far as browsing goes.

Yeah but its wonderful for gaming from the couch on a 50 inch TV.

Why get dishonored now at $45 when you could get all the other titles you missed at $5-10 and then get dishonored in Feb for $5-10 ?

Because there really is nothing else I want to play right now, save for Walking Dead and wishing really hard Red Dead Redemption was on the PC.

The rule is to only buy daily deals & flash sales until the last day. Newer games have less chance of getting the bigger discounts, but you know Dishonored is going to be 25% off through January 5th, so you might as well wait and see if it goes any cheaper between now and then.

Thanks for the tip!

[derFunkenstein]

Yeah I'm getting into the spring releases right about now. Finishing up Max Payne 3, which was $15 at Thanksgiving.

Gaming from the couch with PC graphics is pretty sweet. My TV is only 32" and 720p but HDMI on my PC at least recognizes 1366x768 so it still looks way better than the PS3 - not that I'm going to give up my console.

[paulWTAMU]

If I could connect my PC wirelessly directly to my TV I would, but I can't And I don't want to run HDMI cables across the floor.

[MadManOriginal]

Rules for Steam Sales:

#1 RULE - only buy games that 75% off. Done, that's it. Unless it's a game you REALLY want and want to play now (and god bless you if you don't have a Steam game backlog), or the absolute price difference isn't that much, chances are extremely good it will be 75% off eventually. That is typically the largest discount you'll commonly see (there is 80 or 90% off, but I've only seen those on games that are cheap anyway.)

Uuh, that's just about my only rule, because the other things people have written follow from it - such as seeing a game at 25% off that you want at the start of a sale. It's not 75%, so therefore wait, when it comes back on sale get it!

[ark_angel]

Green Man Gaming had Dishonored 50% off at $29.99 on Tuesday, you may see it for that during this sale.

In general only buy daily deals and flash deals since those seem to be the lowest price the game will be at during the sale until the final day, then get whatever you wanted that never showed up on the daily/flash.

If you're looking for good steam game deals I'd highly suggest bookmarking. http://steamgamedeals.blogspot.com/ that guy just tracks games that activate on steam but that are sold by other retailers. Green Man Gaming and Amazon have some crazy limited time deals that often beat even the steam sale prices.

[superjawes]

Featured deals for the day are typically lowest prices, as are flash sales. If you miss something, or are unsure, yes, there is usually an encore of several popular titles at the end.

In the light of THQ's bankruptcy, I do recommend picking up Saints Row: The Third. It is a whole lot of fun.

[tanker27]

In the light of THQ's bankruptcy, I do recommend picking up Saints Row: The Third. It is a whole lot of fun.

Got it in the Humble Bundle. I was bored after a few hours. :/

[Darkmage]

In the light of THQ's bankruptcy, I do recommend picking up Saints Row: The Third. It is a whole lot of fun.

Got it in the Humble Bundle. I was bored after a few hours. :/

That's surprising to me. Mission design was unique, the voice acting was better than most and the game was constantly reminding me how to have fun. And who doesn't love playing a Japanese game show with automatic weapons?

[JustAnEngineer]

$90 Bethesda Collection:
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/18743/

Dishonored
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY
Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 3 GOTY
Brink, 3 DLCs
Rage
Quake IV, Quake III Arena & Team Arena, Quake II, Quake, 4 DLCs
Doom 3: BFG

[druidcent]

Dammit Bethesda... If I didn't have half the games in that bundle already from the last steam sale bundle... They need to repackage the bundles into I and II or something like that..

[TurtlePerson2]

The problem with bundles is that I already have a few games in the bundle, which makes it not worth the money. The way to fix this problem is to allow me to gift the rest of the games. I'd buy the Bethesda bundle to pick up Skyrim, Dishonored, and Rage if I could gift out the rest of the games to friends who haven't played the recent Fallouts or ES(IV).

[Washer]

The Thanksgiving and Christmas sales follow too closely. Most of the games I've already picked up. Darksiders II interests me but the pricing is all messed ($25 for the game standalone or $20 for the Franchise pack that includes the original and DLC for II, i got the first as part of the THQ Humble Bundle). I'd splurge for the Bethesda pack but there's a few games I already have (Elder Scrolls series) and no way to gift those seperately.

[TurtlePerson2]

There are some times when the pack pricing doesn't do a good job of following the standalone pricing. For example, I'm thinking about picking up Orcs Must Die 2 for me and my brother-in-law to play over Christmas. The thing is that I can buy a 2-pack of the complete (all DLC included) version for $10 or buy one copy of the no-DLC version for $3.75. If I could buy two copies for $5 or $6 I would do it in a heartbeat, but now I'm confused and probably won't buy two copies of the standalone or the $10 two-pack.

[JustAnEngineer]

$30 Dishonored
http://store.steampowered.com/app/205100/

[StuG]

$30 Dishonored
http://store.steampowered.com/app/205100/

Hard to pass up!

[TurtlePerson2]

$30 Dishonored
http://store.steampowered.com/app/205100/

Hard to pass up!

True, but those who do pass it up will probably pay $10 during the July game and play the exact same game.

[StuG]

$30 Dishonored
http://store.steampowered.com/app/205100/

Hard to pass up!

True, but those who do pass it up will probably pay $10 during the July game and play the exact same game.

*Meh* I have been waiting for the game to come down to an acceptable price for a while. Most of my friends have played through it, and it looked awesome I just can't bring myself to dump $59.99 on a game. $30 is a reasonable price, $10 is a steal though. I'm happy enough.

[lilbuddhaman]

AHA! Sim City 4 for $5
(AKA the last decent sim city before they DLC and required-online and casualize it death)

Now I can get the product legitimately instead of having that shred of guilt from (no no word)'ing it.

[mortifiedPenguin]

For instance I want to buy Dishonored, right now its -25% at 44.99. Is that the best its going to get? How long should I wait to purchase it?

I'm sure you noticed already but Dishonored is currently $29.99 (50% off).

edit: actually, after rereading the thread for the fifth time, i see you other gerbils got to it before i did. whoops

[paulWTAMU]

I finally bought Borderlands. So far it's fun but the camera's kind of jerky; is that just me?
I also got dishonored but figured I'd play borderlands some first.

[JustAnEngineer]

$10 Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2 Digital Deluxe:
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/18260/

[JustAnEngineer]

$7.49 Saints Row the Third: The Full Package (includes 17 DLCs):
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/17933/

[JustAnEngineer]

$2.49 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
$2.49 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
http://store.steampowered.com/sale/wint ... Rfranchise

[JustAnEngineer]

$6.24 Portal & Portal 2
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7932/