Truly, the turning of the seasons can be best measured by the rotating Steam sales. More than anything else, it feels like these are the factor most responsible for Valve becoming so powerful they feel like they can charge a thousand dollars for their underpowered cube: whoever you are, and wherever you are on the planet, you can get games for cheap on Steam.
The Steam Summer Sale is an event. To the point they're making trailers for it. It's like the Met Gala for people who don't go outside. All the gaming greats in their finery spun from those little green "80% off" banners, tempting the eyes from one delight to the next. Clean out your wishlist, they seem to whisper. Or just pick up Baldur's Gate 3 for 40 bucks. Unfortunately, this one doesn't have a cool metagame attached to it like previous years.
There are a few all-time greats on offer here, granted. The Witcher 3 for four bucks and Cyberpunk 2077 for under twenty are both no-brainers, as is the Dead Space remake for six. I'm also going to take this opportunity to shill The Outer Worlds 2 again, which you can snap up for half off.
Really, though, whether you hand Gabe more yacht money or not, waking up to a deluge of Steam emails about how everything on your wishlist is on sale is how I know summer's finally arrived.
Previously:
