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Nobody does sales like Steam. Pretty much all PC and console storefronts do similar themed, seasonal, and genuinely compelling sales, but for many gamers, nothing hits quite like a big Steam sale. Over a decade ago, Valve boss Gabe Newell articulated why, and it's arguably truer today.
In an old chat with PC Gamer, Newell examined how Valve's storefront, and PC gaming in general, could stand out in the broader gaming landscape, then competing for visibility and dollars with the PS3 and Xbox 360.
"The thing that we've been successful with are the Steam sales," he said. "The sales have done a really good job of creating a huge amount of support, for customers getting huge numbers of games, and for the developers. The thing that we tried in the last summer sale was to build a story and make the sale itself have entertainment value."
Over a decade ago, Steam sales were a little less codified. Valve has experimented with various ways to gamify and punch up sales over the years, from fancy store portals and Steam points to various feeds and algorithms to spotlight different games. Between the big seasonal events like the summer sale, Valve also supports tighter sales often promoting games in a specific genre. Additionally, it enables publishers to throw weekend sales on all or most of their catalog. Developers can dip into daily deals, weekend deals, discount bundles, or just-because discounts perhaps marking release milestones.
The culture of Steam has reached the point that, seemingly because of the frequency of sales and the volume of choices available, relatively few people buy games when they aren't on sale. I've become more aware of just how influential the structure and culture of Steam purchases can be through interactions with many indie developers and publishers, and by speaking to folks like Steam researcher and indie marketer Chris Zukowski, who describes the "breath of Steam" as inhaling Steam wishlists through promotions and exhaling money during sales.
Newel added: "I think you'll see us do more of that in the future because it helps get people excited to try stuff that they haven't tried before. In other words, the revenue being generated by all games developers goes up when the vehicle that you're doing it by is in and of itself entertaining."
This touches on something else that Steam does better than arguably any other digital store: it actively encourages you to treat it as a digital shelf where you can store all your collectibles. Your Steam wishlist is probably filled with more than just games you want to keep an eye on; it's a set of imagined experiences, fun you might have one day. Much the same is likely true of your library. It's definitely true for mine.
Sometimes planning or fantasizing about things feels almost as satisfying as doing them, and Valve has monetized that by rewarding gamers whose eyes are bigger than their stomach – or whose Steam carts far outpace their free time. This is reflected in the zeitgeist around Steam sales – all the gags depicting Newell as the patron saint of discounts and reaper of wallets – which has notably leveled out over the years as sales have become more normalized and gaming has become wider, with more time and money concentrated in evergreen live service games.
Zukowski put it this way in an analysis last year: "You get access to a bunch of drunken sailors who spend money irresponsibly," and all you have to do is put up with Valve's 30% base cut of Steam sales. Newell comes at it from a more PR-palatable angle, but I think everyone's talking about the same thing. Valve wants the act of buying games, and finding new games to buy, to be fun on its own, not just functional, and Steam was built to suit that.
