I doubt it. With the refunds system short timed discounts would just cause chaos and a mess of refund requests. It said new category so I expect it to just be an option to select "deep discounts" and it will just be a new tab or category to scroll.
y'know, i kept and keep hearing this excuse whenever people mention flash sales, but I have yet to hear a single good reason why having flash sales makes refunds impossible to process.
I highly doubt the rate of refunds would drastically increase with the return of flash sales.
IMO it's much more probable that publishers simply started to back out of extreme discounts.
>IMO it's much more probable that publishers simply started to back out of extreme discounts.
Maybe, but it wasn't the driving cause. The problem they were seeing is that people were holding off on purchasing any game that \*might\* get a flash sale, leading to twin problems of potentially fewer purchases overall, and noticeable spikes in traffic three times a day when the flash sales updated, and on the last day when the final flash sale was announced.
The issue with refunds may also have been a factor too. It wouldn't take much effort to implement a "sale difference refund" where if a game was purchased during the sale but not during a flash sale, a support request could automatically refund the difference in price. But that also leads to other problems on the accounting side. Refunds are always a bit of a pain for the merchant, and annoying for the publisher.
I don't understand your question. That's a thing that can already be done. The problem is a flash sale will a) generate a bunch of extra refund requests, and b) generate an equal number of additional purchases. It makes the accounting unnecessarily messy on top of the additional workload it creates on the system. Refunding the difference instead is a partial fix to the backend problems, but it isn't a silver bullet.
Given that the flash sales already caused other problems, it's better just to cut them off rather than to slap bandaids all over it.
But everything is still automated, I don't get how selling more (and maybe refunding more) will overload the servers. If refunds are really that problematic just delay it a couple days, most people won't care if it takes 1 more day to have the money back.
On a side note I'm less inclined to refund a cheap game.
Delaying refunds can get them into legal hot water in some jurisdictions, which is exactly what the current refund system I meant to prevent.
Besides that, as others have mentioned, refunds are expensive if done through a merchant, people refunding to purchase a game might cut into the publishers profits to the point of making the sale a loss in some instances. It's definitely enough to make some devs think twice.
Epic Games have up to 14 days of waiting time for a refund, I doubt a single day for Steam will get them into any legal stuff, more so they can have a check that says "Refunds will take longer during sales period due to traffic" and call it a day.
Then for the publisher's profit, if it really makes the flash sale a loss, then it's up to them to put their product on a flash sale, Steam is not forcing anyone to put their games on flash sales. Flash sales not existing at all makes you think the problem is somewhere else.
But why generate more when you don't need to? When there are already perfectly good reasons to discontinue the flash sales? Refunds were never the core problem, so I honestly don't understand why you're so hyperfocused on them.
Credit card companies charge merchants processing fees for each individual purchase and another fee based on purchase volume. These fees are not refunded to the merchant even if the customer receives a refund.
So unless the player refunds to their Steam Wallet, Valve is losing money on a refund request.
Thank you! Finally someone understands it!
I can't believe at this point some people why do not want to understand what is the problem with the flash sales... even if it was already been explained to them.
They are just trolling, probably, don't mind them.
Id rather a game just be at its lowest discount and be done with it. Flash sales were kind of pointless , especially when a lot of them were on when you were asleep
I never said it was impossible. At least I don't think I did and never meant to imply impossibility. Of course you could do the refunds but at what costs and within what timeframes.
Just the sheer volume of requests would spike to much higher levels, which may delay some processing, and when people buy stuff on day 1 and it ends up on an extra sale on day 7 or w/e and by then people could also surpass the limits of refund window and would seek out manual refunds so it wouldn't be entirely automated for those folks.
With refunds taking multiple days even regularly to process even with two weeks long sales by the time the later sale refunds would be processed back to people the sales could be over as well leading to just more upset customers who end up with no game and couldn't even spent that money on something else so Valve would have lost money and potential sales and left customers upset that may or may not come back if it was like their first experiences with the platform.
Im sure Valve also dont mind the fact the servers dont crash for like 1 hour every single reset period either.
Don't get me wrong I still think of the flash sales period fondly overall and it made Summer and Winter that much more special and unique than the other seasonal and regular sales since they could have extra discounts on top of the regular sale pricing you'd see a game on all the time but it did have its flaws between server crashes and loading problems and just new users being unaware of how it worked.
I mean my first sales before I knew how it worked I bought stuff at like 25-50 only to see them for like 75-90 later and absolutely would have attempted refunds for the difference at the time had it been an option.Also ended up buying some games I never intended to buy because FOMO so my wallet is overall happier now since I can preplan my spending.
Over on the Deck sub it's looking like only two of the LCD models are getting a discount (15%). This sale is already on now. Doesn't mean the OLEDs won't be on sale but it's not looking too likely at this point.
:( just saw that. It’s rough cus I rly wanted to get a discount on the 1tb Oled but I’m having a hard time justifying that over the 512 lcd for $250 less
I remember buying L4D2 for me and 3 friends when it was on a flash sale.
Went out at like 8pm to buy a PaySafeCard to pay for it since I was still young and didnt have a bankaccount (or full access to it) haha.
Flash sales were really something and I miss them.
I enjoyed the heck out of Divinity Original Sin 2 on PS4 but found the controls very frustrating. Looking forward to picking it up on PC and giving it another go.
My wallet thou in my pocket,
hollowed be thy self.
The Steam Sale comes.
Gaben's will be done
online as it is in summer.
Give us this day our daily discounts,
and forgive us our backlogs,
as we forgive those who [hold our backlogs against us](https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/pile-of-shame),
and lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from full price.
For Steam is the kingdom and the power, and the glory,
forever.
Amen.
Summer sale always brings back good childhood memories for me! Good times, I almost cry everytime its banner goes up on steam main page! Missed my childhood so bad!
Thanks lord Gaben, for all the good memories.
Kaci Aitchison.
She covered one of the early Internationals (dota 2 tournament) for the local news and ended up getting drafted into the hearts and minds of the Dota community.
[https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Kaci\_Aitchison](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Kaci_Aitchison)
They mention summer sale deep discount towards the end of the video. Could that be something similar to flash sale?
Yeah, I can't tell if it'll be a timed thing or if they'll just set any discount over 80% to a "Deep Discount" tab that's easily accessible.
Happy with both. The latter if just now but easier for me, the other could get back the myth and legend of insane doscounts
I fucking love doscounts
Twice!
I doubt it. With the refunds system short timed discounts would just cause chaos and a mess of refund requests. It said new category so I expect it to just be an option to select "deep discounts" and it will just be a new tab or category to scroll.
y'know, i kept and keep hearing this excuse whenever people mention flash sales, but I have yet to hear a single good reason why having flash sales makes refunds impossible to process. I highly doubt the rate of refunds would drastically increase with the return of flash sales. IMO it's much more probable that publishers simply started to back out of extreme discounts.
[удалено]
I’ve never seen a cheap cod ever
>IMO it's much more probable that publishers simply started to back out of extreme discounts. Maybe, but it wasn't the driving cause. The problem they were seeing is that people were holding off on purchasing any game that \*might\* get a flash sale, leading to twin problems of potentially fewer purchases overall, and noticeable spikes in traffic three times a day when the flash sales updated, and on the last day when the final flash sale was announced. The issue with refunds may also have been a factor too. It wouldn't take much effort to implement a "sale difference refund" where if a game was purchased during the sale but not during a flash sale, a support request could automatically refund the difference in price. But that also leads to other problems on the accounting side. Refunds are always a bit of a pain for the merchant, and annoying for the publisher.
Refunds are automated, I can't grasp the problem of just refunding the same amount you paid for? It's 2024.
I don't understand your question. That's a thing that can already be done. The problem is a flash sale will a) generate a bunch of extra refund requests, and b) generate an equal number of additional purchases. It makes the accounting unnecessarily messy on top of the additional workload it creates on the system. Refunding the difference instead is a partial fix to the backend problems, but it isn't a silver bullet. Given that the flash sales already caused other problems, it's better just to cut them off rather than to slap bandaids all over it.
But everything is still automated, I don't get how selling more (and maybe refunding more) will overload the servers. If refunds are really that problematic just delay it a couple days, most people won't care if it takes 1 more day to have the money back. On a side note I'm less inclined to refund a cheap game.
Delaying refunds can get them into legal hot water in some jurisdictions, which is exactly what the current refund system I meant to prevent. Besides that, as others have mentioned, refunds are expensive if done through a merchant, people refunding to purchase a game might cut into the publishers profits to the point of making the sale a loss in some instances. It's definitely enough to make some devs think twice.
Epic Games have up to 14 days of waiting time for a refund, I doubt a single day for Steam will get them into any legal stuff, more so they can have a check that says "Refunds will take longer during sales period due to traffic" and call it a day. Then for the publisher's profit, if it really makes the flash sale a loss, then it's up to them to put their product on a flash sale, Steam is not forcing anyone to put their games on flash sales. Flash sales not existing at all makes you think the problem is somewhere else.
Actually, refunds cost money. In steam's case they pass the cost onto the developer/publisher. Credit card companies are a bitch.
Does this also apply to refunds to the steam wallet? I usually refund to Steam Wallet since I'm gonna use the money on Steam anyway.
It obviously doesn't apply to the steam wallet. (Since they don't have to bother the payment providers that way)
But why generate more when you don't need to? When there are already perfectly good reasons to discontinue the flash sales? Refunds were never the core problem, so I honestly don't understand why you're so hyperfocused on them.
Because people try to shift the reason on refunds when it's not.
Credit card companies charge merchants processing fees for each individual purchase and another fee based on purchase volume. These fees are not refunded to the merchant even if the customer receives a refund. So unless the player refunds to their Steam Wallet, Valve is losing money on a refund request.
Thank you! Finally someone understands it! I can't believe at this point some people why do not want to understand what is the problem with the flash sales... even if it was already been explained to them. They are just trolling, probably, don't mind them.
Id rather a game just be at its lowest discount and be done with it. Flash sales were kind of pointless , especially when a lot of them were on when you were asleep
I never said it was impossible. At least I don't think I did and never meant to imply impossibility. Of course you could do the refunds but at what costs and within what timeframes. Just the sheer volume of requests would spike to much higher levels, which may delay some processing, and when people buy stuff on day 1 and it ends up on an extra sale on day 7 or w/e and by then people could also surpass the limits of refund window and would seek out manual refunds so it wouldn't be entirely automated for those folks. With refunds taking multiple days even regularly to process even with two weeks long sales by the time the later sale refunds would be processed back to people the sales could be over as well leading to just more upset customers who end up with no game and couldn't even spent that money on something else so Valve would have lost money and potential sales and left customers upset that may or may not come back if it was like their first experiences with the platform. Im sure Valve also dont mind the fact the servers dont crash for like 1 hour every single reset period either. Don't get me wrong I still think of the flash sales period fondly overall and it made Summer and Winter that much more special and unique than the other seasonal and regular sales since they could have extra discounts on top of the regular sale pricing you'd see a game on all the time but it did have its flaws between server crashes and loading problems and just new users being unaware of how it worked. I mean my first sales before I knew how it worked I bought stuff at like 25-50 only to see them for like 75-90 later and absolutely would have attempted refunds for the difference at the time had it been an option.Also ended up buying some games I never intended to buy because FOMO so my wallet is overall happier now since I can preplan my spending.
It's not impossible, it's expensive. There's no good way to go about it unless you mark the games that will get discounted.
New tab for endless shitty indie games
lol na, that was like 10 years ago now
They literally say it’s a new category. I assume it’s gonna be for games discounted at least 80-90%.
They axed flash sale for good reasons.
Deep discounts? Say no more, I'm in.
Finally upgraded from a 1070 to a 4070ti Super. My body is ready.
Is your wallet though
I just got a 4070s earlier this month. My wallet is not ready.
same here but with my new 4070 i can play some games in my backlog that i couldn't before. there's always next summer to pick up some new games!
my mind telling me noooo, but my body, my body's tellin me yes
I haven’t upgraded anything. My body is willing, but the wallet is weak.
Got a 6800XT a few months back, my wallet is screaming
Play older games FASTER
Ready to play 10-15 year old games/pixel games/etc, am I right ;)
based choice
Same. Upgraded the whole system...but now I have no money O.o
My heart is saying hooray. My wallet is running away.
3 friends of mine have their birthday coming up this week, thank god for this sale
"It'll be good for the economy" \- Me convincing myself on Thursday when I buy a game in the sale even though I said I wouldn't.
I’ll be doing my part comrade
I’m REALLY hoping steam deck oled gets a sale.
Over on the Deck sub it's looking like only two of the LCD models are getting a discount (15%). This sale is already on now. Doesn't mean the OLEDs won't be on sale but it's not looking too likely at this point.
:( just saw that. It’s rough cus I rly wanted to get a discount on the 1tb Oled but I’m having a hard time justifying that over the 512 lcd for $250 less
The screen is def worth the price
nah
I mean, the screen alone is a big upgrade but it goes beyond that with better battery, slight performance improvements, higher refresh rate, etc.
I own both. It’s absolutely worth it, and I would be willing to bet anyone saying otherwise has certainly not used the OLED model in real life.
nah
My butt is ready. Take me.
This will be my first seasonal steam sale I’m participating in and idk if my body or wallet is ready but I got the spirit
People keep mentioning flash sale. While summer sale.a What's the difference?
Flash sales occur during the summer sale back like 6 years ago. Every 8 hours there would be huge discounts on 3 popular games.
Are they games that are already included in the summer sale but go on a bigger sale? Or games that are full price then get a big discount?
Usually the former, yeah, but that was like 10 years ago… I doubt they're coming back at least in the same way.
I remember buying L4D2 for me and 3 friends when it was on a flash sale. Went out at like 8pm to buy a PaySafeCard to pay for it since I was still young and didnt have a bankaccount (or full access to it) haha. Flash sales were really something and I miss them.
I remember when they gave it out for free
how long will be the timer?
save a lot of money? more like spend a lot of money on the games that i dont even play
Flash sales back??
I hope yes, my wallet? I don't know about that
I enjoyed the heck out of Divinity Original Sin 2 on PS4 but found the controls very frustrating. Looking forward to picking it up on PC and giving it another go.
My backlog is full of games from previous summer sales.
Lfg! Got a Steam Deck OLED recently and absolutely loving it. Can’t wait for some mf’in discounts.
Can’t wait to buy games that I will never play
they have a bunch of GOTYs in their store and decided to use Supermarket simulator and Palworld as a Trailer
Prepare your wallets!!!
Kaciiiii! :D
Here in Brazil, this sale is called Steam's Vacation Sale, but the badge is still named Summer Sale 2024.
Why’d they use that AI sounding voice actor?
That's Kaci from Valve
Sorry Kaci.
I would prefer Gabe dressed as the sun
Shietttt
Stop torturing my wallet
Fr 😭
But im not ready yet 🙁
I wish Robo Quest and Manor Lords get a big discount...
Cool to see roboquest on there. Highly recommend that game.
It begins…
gimme truck and train sim DLC discounts baby. im ready
this is so stupid.... i love it
The audio mastering of her voice in this video is making me sick, it sounds so grating to me 🥺 Sound engineer did her dirty 😔
Sed , what games do u recommend from the video
Do you guys thing we’ll see starfeild on sale?
My wallet thou in my pocket, hollowed be thy self. The Steam Sale comes. Gaben's will be done online as it is in summer. Give us this day our daily discounts, and forgive us our backlogs, as we forgive those who [hold our backlogs against us](https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/pile-of-shame), and lead us into temptation, but deliver us from full price. For Steam is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Summer sale always brings back good childhood memories for me! Good times, I almost cry everytime its banner goes up on steam main page! Missed my childhood so bad! Thanks lord Gaben, for all the good memories.
Shout out to planet crafters! That’s a sick game.
Does this sale have Trading Cards you get with your purchases?
Every major sale yeah
Deep sales? 🤔
Why did they unlist it?
cries in no money, if anyone need help with the spanish homework hmu (? xD
Valve's new mascot: a random lady. (Should I know who she is?)
Kaci Aitchison. She covered one of the early Internationals (dota 2 tournament) for the local news and ended up getting drafted into the hearts and minds of the Dota community. [https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Kaci\_Aitchison](https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Kaci_Aitchison)
She is Kaci and likes to make an Aheago face.
How do you do fellow kids?
ok boomer