Sound the alarms. Sound the klaxons. Snatch up your wallet. STEAM SAAAAAAAAAAALE !
It's a surprisingly convoluted sale. There are the daily deals, which already features Terraria and Total War: Shogun 2 at 75% off. Flash sales rotate every eight hours. The highlights of this current selection look to be Deus Ex: Human Revolution at a quarter of its normal price and the lovely, shiny platformer, Rayman Origins at half price. The first of looks to be a series of daily Indie Bundles is also live, offering Anomoly: Warzone Earth, Cave Story+, Edge, Lone Survivor and the Baconing for under £20 / $27.
Then there's the community slot, which lets everyone vote on a choice of upcoming discounts. The first choice: two thirds off Batman: Arkham City, Saints Row: The Third at 75% off and The Witcher 2 at 60% off. That is not an easy decision. If you're looking for something to play with friends, Saints Row's co-op mode is worth it at that price.
Then aside from those mini sales, there's a wide range of titles that are generally slightly cheaper than usual. If you're interested in playing DayZ, or love military shooters, Arma 2: Combined Operations is 20% discounted.
Also: BADGES. You can see your badge progress in a little section on the right hand side of your Steam community profile page. Clicking on that will show a series of tasks that you can complete to level up your Steam Summer Sale badge and earn a "Pillar of the Community" badge. There are bound to be rewards tied to these somehow, but we're not sure how that works just yet.
Steam has changed its policy on DLC content and season passes, so now players are entitled to proper compensation if future plans fall through: 'Customers will be offered a refund for the value of unreleased DLC'
Indie distribution platform Itch.io now requires asset creators to disclose the use of generative AI in their work
