Steam’s Exploration Sale is rather uneventful

Whenever there is a sale on Steam, and the number of sales per year increased sharply in recent years, you can be sure that things get quite hectic in the beginning.

It is often the case that the first minutes of the sale take much of Steam down with them, and it may take ten or so minutes before things go back to normal.

The Steam Exploration Sale started yesterday and will end December 1, at 10am PST. The sale is different from previous sales, as there are not any mini-games, themes, cards to win, votes to make or time-limited deals.

In fact, all you get are thousands of games that are discounted until December 1. There is no chance that games will be discounted even more during the sale, and it is certain that there won't be any new discounts either for games currently not participating in the sale.

What that means? That you can buy any game right away without having to worry about it getting even more attractive when it is featured as a Flash Sale or Daily Deal.

The only thing changing in the deal period is the selection of featured deals on the Steam frontpage. Everything else won't change.

That's good news for Steam users who don't have time to check up on deals every eight hours or every day, as prices won't change anymore so that they can be certain they get the game for the best price.

Others may dislike this new sale, not only because there is little to do, no cards, no badges or mini-games, but also because games may not be as cheap as they could have been.

Since game companies only had to provide Valve with a single discount for their games instead of two, it is likely that some games are not offered as cheap as they would be if they'd also be featured as a daily deal or flash sale on Steam.

That does not mean that you cannot get good deals out of the sale. That depends largely on the type of games you like however.

I spotted several games already that I'm interested in, some of them discounted by as much as 80%.

One thing to consider is the Winter Sale which will start in less than a month. There is a chance that games will be discounted even more during that sale, and if you don't need a game right now, you may want to wait with the purchase to see what the winter sale brings provided that its current price does not convince you to buy it right away.

Now You: Do you buy games during the Steam Sale? Anything you recommend?