Steam Summer Sale

Well, looks like it's time to tell little Timmy that Santa won't be able to afford that shiny new bicycle he desperately wanted this year. Dark Souls 2 is on sale.

Yes, Valve kicked off its 2014 Steam Holiday Sale a few hours ago, just in time to destroy everyone's holiday budget planning. Curse you, Lord Gaben, curse you. This year's sale has discounted more than 6,000 titles and runs until 10 a.m. PST January 2.

Valve said there will be more than 100 titles featured over the next two weeks. Featured Deals for day 1 of the sale include a number of blockbuster titles, including Dark Souls 2 for $14.79 (63% off), Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth for $29.99 (40% off) and State of Decay for $4.99. (75% off) Featured Deals should remain available for up to 48 hours, but the Steam homepage will change every 12 hours as new deals and flash sales are added, a similar structure to previous year's sales.

Previous Steam sales have allowed the Steam community to influence which games go on sale next, but this sale's Community Choice will let gamers vote for which one of 3 titles that will be going on sale in the next 24 hours gets a steeper discount. All 3 titles will still go on sale regardless, but the "losing" games won't get the extra reduction.

This may actually be a bit disappointing for those that remember some past Steam sales, like the one from this summer. Some previous community votes have allowed gamers to select which genre of game they wanted to go on sale next, and the winning genre sometimes had seriously steep discounts on 3 major titles. The Holiday 2014 community vote has Valve picking the 3 games instead of the users, taking some influence away from the community.

But that aside, it still looks like gamers are in for some amazing deals, provided they have enough money left after the holidays to take advantage. All major Steam sales are usually met with people jokingly crying in the comments that Valve is out to destroy their wallets, but the holiday sale in particular often ends up feeling like a test of personal will. Can gamers hold out from handing over their credit card info long enough to ensure that they'll have enough cash for their family's holiday presents?

If past sales are any indication, you can most likely expect some better deals in the second week of the sale after Christmas, once everyone's income becomes a little more disposable. This year's sale also features holiday trading cards and badges. Gamers can earn special backgrounds, emoticons and more. The Holiday Auction is over, but users can still create trading card booster packs.

The 2014 Steam Holiday Sale runs until January 2.

Follow Jason Gallagher on Twitter @MuckrakerJG.

Source: Steam