Valve reveals Steam Sale dates for first half of 2022 and new Discount Policy updates

Valve has finally announced all Steam Sale dates for the first half of 2022, as well as the sales policy updates that will hit the platform on February 21.

In a recent post, Valve pointed out that for 2022, they will bring in an extensive number of themed sales, which will help developers have an easier time promoting their titles on the platform.

This will also help gamers get a better idea of the type of title that will be going up on sale for that particular period. Thereby, it will allow them to make a more informed choice when waiting for a sale date for the game that they are very excited about.

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Valve lists all significant and themed sale dates for Steam

1) Major sale dates

Next February fest sale

After the current Lunar New year sale period expires, platform users can look for another major discount fest in February. This next sale will last from February 21 to 28 and focus primarily on upcoming updates and playable demos.

June Fest Sale

After February, Valve points out that the next major sale period will be in June. Although the exact dates for this one have not yet been announced, it’s stated that the sale will focus on more upcoming games and demos.

Steam Summer Sale

The Summer Sale is one of the biggest game discount periods on the platform, and titles all across the store see an incredible amount of price cut-off during this time. In 2022, the Summer Sale will start on June 23 and last until July 7.

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2) Themed sale dates

Remote Play Together (February 28 to March 7)

This themed event will feature titles that champion cooperative gaming modes, which can be either online, shared-screen, or even split-screen. Games that support Remote Play Together will also be eligible during this time.

JRPG fest (March 14 to 21)

The March-themed fest will primarily showcase Japanese role-playing titles.

Sim Fest - Hobby Edition (Mach 28 to April 4)

Simulation titles will be the ones in focus for this theme sale period. So users who like to invest a lot of time in a digital double life will find lots of their favorite games on discount during this period.

Die-a-lot: Die and repeat and die again (May 2 to 9)

Souls-like, Roguelike, Roguelite, and Metroidvanias will be the focus of this theme, as it’s all about feature games that kill players over and over again.

Racing fest (May 23 to 30, 2022)

As the name mentions, Racing games will be receiving discounts across the platform during the final week of May.

Survival fest (July 18 to 25)

Survival games and the survival horror genre, which rely on scavenging and looting, will be the final themed Steam Sale for the first half of 2022.

It’s important to note here that this is not a comprehensive list of Steam events set to arrive in the early half of 2022.

These dates are just the ones that Valve has mentioned thus far. The platform developers have stated that they will look to bring in even more themed events throughout the entirety of the year.

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3) New Discount Policies for developers

Along with upcoming dates on all their major and themed sale dates, Valve also lists out some rules for developers when it comes to Discount Policies:

• Developers and publishers can run a launch discount, but once their launch discount ends, they cannot run any other discounts for 28 days.
• It will not be possible to discount their product for 28 days following a price increase in any currency.
• Discounts cannot be run within 28 days of your prior discount, with the exception of Steam-wide seasonal events.
• Discounts for seasonal sale events cannot be run within 28 days of releasing their title, within 28 days from when their launch discount ends, or within 28 days of a price increase in any currency.
• Developers may not change their price while a promotion is live now or scheduled for the future.
• It is not possible to discount a product by more than 90% or less than 10%.
• Custom discounts cannot last longer than two weeks or run for shorter than one day.

While these new policies don’t exactly bring in too many tweaks, it signifies that titles can now be put on sale more often throughout the year.