Yes, it's the season for that time-honored tradition of kicking off the summer by discounting hundreds of digital games, and I am ready to go. Admittedly, participating in the last few seasonal sales as whittled down my wishlist to next to nothing, comparatively speaking, but I am still hopeful.
To wit:
- GOG.com: Always kicks off the summer with their big summer DRM-free sale. (Granted, every big sale is DRM-free, but I digress.) Usually in June, and runs for a few weeks. They usually offer pretty nice series bundles, so if you are interesting in dipping your toes in a whole series, this greatly lowers the barriers to entry.
- Steam: They are usually the first sale of the season, often in late May/early June. Especially great if you're looking at more recent titles, and discount percentages are often bigger than GOG.
- PSN: Also usually runs a summer sale, but usually isn't that impressive. It's almost always a small selection of games on sale, and the discounts are usually not higher than 30% off MSRP.
- Xbox Live: From what my friends have told me, they run their sales at the end of the summer. I'm not an Xbox gamer, so I don't follow these, but I might make a mini post about it.
- Nintendo eShop: Nintendo themselves do not offer a storewide sale, but individual publishers will often do so. Off the top of my head, I believe Atlus USA and Ubisoft often do summer sales on their titles.
What Miss Scarlett is looking for:
- In the past few months, GOG have gotten the rights to sell classic LucasArts games, so I am looking forward to any kind of discount off of these. I also have a handful of indie point-and-clicks on the list, so I'll see if any of them are in line for a discount, too.
- I have been mulling over getting Portal for the longest time, so if Steam offers it at a nice discount, I might snatch it up. Also looking for a hefty discount off of RealMyst, since I've heard it's a much nicer redesign of classic Myst, which I liked.
- I am not getting my hopes up for anything from PSN. I have found that the flash sales they offer are almost always better. (I am still sighing in happiness from the 80% off flash sale they did a few months ago, can't beat $0.80 for a PS2 Classics game.) But there are a few PS1 Classics games I'm planning on getting eventually, so we'll see if Sony tosses us a bone or two this summer. Same for Nintendo (I have long consigned myself to paying full MSRP for anything from them) and Xbox (don't own one, don't buy the games).
The GOG sale is live, and Steam's sale will be starting on the 11th. Happy bargain hunting!
