Steam's Halloween, Autumn, and Winter Sale dates leaked

Or so they say

Deals by Alice O'Connor Former Associate Editor

Published on Oct. 21, 2019

As sure as autumn leads to winter, a Steam Autumn Sale leads to the Steam Winter Sale, and the dates for these discount-o-ramas are leaked long before Valve announce them. Word is going round that dates are set for Steam's Halloween, Autumn, and Winter Sales, with the spooky sale starting in one week. Details of which games will be on sale and how cheap are unknown for now. Let's guess that if the makers can reasonably present any part of it as spooky, ooky, or even just kooky, it'll get a discount.

The game-watchers at SteamDB caught whispers of dates from developers:

Leaked upcoming @steam_games 2019 sale dates:

🎃 Halloween Sale: October 28 - November 1
🍂 Autumn Sale: November 26 - December 3
🎅 Winter Sale: December 19 - January 2

Multiple developers posted it in multiple places despite Valve asking otherwise. But you know how that goes.
— SteamDB (@SteamDB) October 19, 2019

Steam's seasonal sales might not be the huge events they once were, now that so many games are so cheap so often on so many stores (or just straight free-to-play), but I still like 'em for games I liked the look of but never got around to. They're also good for games I hadn't even known about but will pick up if they look colourful or weird and only cost a couple of quid. A tenner can buy a whole lot of "Huh!" and pleasant surprises.

Valve had stepped back from fleeting flash deals and minigames for a while, but did go again with the Grand Prix competition in this year's Steam Summer Sale. That was a mess. Devs griped that Valve caused players to wipe many games off their wishlists, potentially harming their sales, and Valve conceded that the race itself was imbalanced too.

My suggestion: some sort of USB peripheral which plugs into apples and gives discounts from real-world apple bobbing. It'll also need USB handcuffs to ensure you don't cheat and use your hands, of course. Or they could tie it to Valve Index cybergoggles et voila, people will spend a small fortune to save a couple quid on gift copies of Sonic 2006 to prank their pals.

My prediction for the Steam Halloween Sale is that Deadly Premonition will once again be £2 and I will once again recommend it because a huge discount mitigates the likeliness that you may bounce off this wonderful game or find it crashes too much. An RPS tradition since 2014.

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