Steam’s annual event, which PC gamers eagerly await each year, has finally started. The Steam Summer Sale 2019 is now live and will run through July 9, offering gamers a seemingly endless list of games to choose from.
“Start your engines, everybody… the Steam Summer Sale has begun! For the next 14 days, enjoy great savings on a huge selection of games and join in the Steam Grand Prix 2019 event until July 7th 10AM PDT,” Steam says in a blog post.
Thousands of games across various genres are now available on discount, so if you don’t have a Steam wishlist, it could prove difficult to choose the games you want. However, to help you make a choice, we have listed some of the best deals from the Steam Summer Sale 2019.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey $29.99 ($30 off), Skyrim $19.99 ($20 off), Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds $14.99 ($15 off), Doom $14.99 ($5 off), Devil May Cry 5 — $39.59 ($20.40 off), Yakuza 0 $9.99 ($10 off), Half-Life — $0.99 ($9 off), Batman: Arkham Knight $4.99 ($15 off), Scythe: Digital Edition $7.99 ($12 off), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year Edition $14.99 ($35 off), Castle Crashers $2.99 ($12 off), Don’t Starve Together $5.99 ($9 off), Battletech $13.59 ($26.40 off), Stardew Valley $11.99 ($3 off), Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire $25, Return of the Obra Dinn $18, Slay the Spire $12.49, Sonic Mania $6.79, Shadow of the Tomb Raider $24, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice $48, Slime Rancher $10, Scythe – Digital Edition $8, SoulCalibur VI $19.79, Stardew Valley $12, Prey $15, Kentucky Route Zero $12.49 ($12.50 off), Return of the Obra Dinn $17.99 ($2 off), Total War: Warhammer 2 $29.99 ($30 off), Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak $9.99 ($40 off), Arma 3 $10.19 ($19.80 off), Elite: Dangerous $8.99 ($21 off), XCOM 2 $14.99 ($45 off), Crusader Kings 2 $9.99 ($30 off)
For more information on the deals, visit the Steam Store.
In addition to the sale, Steam is also giving gamers a chance to get their favorite games free. Like every other year, the Steam Summer Sale 2019 also has a theme, and this year’s theme is Grand Prix. Players will be able to earn rewards and free games by participating in a competitive mini-game.
To participate in the mini-game, you will have to pick a team. Your choices are Hare, Corgi, Cockatiel, Pig and Tortoise. You will be able track the rankings of the teams on the Grand Prix page. Additionally, there is a Boost Meter which enables you to earn points. For instance, if you participate in the sale every day, your Boost Meter’s capacity increases by 100. The capacity increases by 100 for every $1 spend in the sale.
To earn points, you will have to complete the Grand Prix Quests in your Steam games. Each point you earn will help you get you closer to the next boost. Boosting increases the speed of your team in the race. Every day Steam will select random members from the teams coming in first, second and third to receive one of the top items on their Steam wishlists free.
“As a daily reward for burning rubber on the track, contributing racers from teams that come in first, second or third place have a random chance to win a game from your wishlist. For Teams that place in the final, all contributing racers have a chance to win!” Steam says.
Gamers will also earn Grand Prix tokens, which can later be redeemed for gifts at the Pit Stop. The gifts include chat emoticons, profile backgrounds and more. Since it is a competition, you will also have the ability to decrease other teams’ Boost levels. To learn more about the Grand Prix rules, visit this link.
The Steam Summer Sale 2019 is just the start of summer deals. Amazon will kick off Prime Day 2019 next month. You can also check the Fanatical Red Hot summer sale, where thousands of PC games are on discount. Recently Epic Games hosted its first storewide sale called the Epic Mega Sale, offering heavy discounts to gamers on popular titles.
In other gaming news, Steam’s parent company Valve announced earlier this week that Steam won’t support the next version of Ubuntu (19.10). Valve’s decision is based on the fact that Ubuntu won’t include any 32-bit packages going forward. This will mean that applications based on 32-bit libraries or drivers won’t work, including many games on Steam.
In response, Canonical, the developer of Ubuntu, said that it will continue to support “selected 32-bit i386 packages for Ubuntu 19.10 and 20.04 LTS” and that it will search for long-term solutions.
