Summer Savings: Epic and GOG's respective summer discount extravaganzas may have come to a close now, but that doesn't mean you've run out of chances to snag great games on the cheap. Valve has finally kicked off its annual Steam Summer Sale, bringing deep discounts on thousands of games.
Obviously, the best way to experience all that the Summer Sale has to offer is to dive right in, but there are a few important details worth mentioning in regards to this sale. For starters, Valve is using the Summer Sale as an opportunity to launch its rumored loyalty program.
Now, whenever you make a purchase on Steam, you'll earn points ($1 = 100 points) that you can spend in the new, "here-to-stay" Points Shop. The Shop contains animated chat stickers, unique profile backgrounds, badges, new emotes, and a handful of other goodies.
You'll even find rewards that represent some of your favorite games. For example, there's an animated sticker for Geralt (of The Witcher 3 fame) hanging out in a bathtub, and another that shows Doom Eternal's Marauder enemy saying hello to a bunny.
As for sale-specific features or events, Valve doesn't have much to offer this time around. You will be granted a one-time $5 discount on any order that comes in at $30 or more, but that's about it.
However, given Valve's spotty track record with meta events lately (they've ranged from bad to worse), perhaps it's for the best that the company is doing away with unnecessary gimmicks this year.
Since there are far too many discounts to cover here, we won't even try. However, rest assured that most games you're likely to be interested in have probably seen some sort of discount.
Steam's 2020 Summer Sale ends on July 9 at 10AM PT, so you've got exactly two weeks to supplement your likely-already-bloated Steam library with a few (dozen) extra games.