How to survive the 2012 Steam Summer Sale

UPDATE: The day one deals are now live: here's what we think of them. 

Valve
have spent years researching, developing and experimenting on the best
ways to convince you to part with your cash. They are thinking about the
money flows through Steam harder than any of us. They’ve even got an
in-house economist. They cannot be negotiated with. They cannot be
stopped. They are relentless, and you are going to give them your money.

But
you can protect yourself. We’ve put together this handy guide to help
navigate Valve’s most dangerous sales. Read it, and be ready.

1) DO NOT BUY A GAME AT THE START OF THE SALE UNLESS IT IS PART OF A DAILY DEAL.

We’re putting this at the top, because if you can take one thing away from this piece, it’s this.

We’ll say it again.

Do not buy a game at the start of the sale unless it’s part of a daily deal.

At
the opening of the sale, you’ll see that vast swathes of games have had
their price reduced. But don’t be tempted. Don’t buy a game at it’s
reduced price at the start of the sale unless it’s part of a daily deal.
Even if a game is reduced in price immediately, it may well be reduced
even further during Steam’s daily deals.

And we’ll say it one last time, just to be sure.

Do not buy a game at the start of the sale unless it’s part of a daily deal.

2) Make a list. Check it twice.

Steam
has a wishlist: so make use of it. Before the sale begins, have a trawl
the store and spot the games you want to play and add them to your pile
of wants. Then arrange those wants according to just how much you want
to play them.

This
isn’t about getting yourself excited; it’s about instilling discipline.
It’s about making a conscious decision to rule out purchases. The first
few days of the sale are an assault of bargains and temptation. You can
avoid temptation by doing your research beforehand.

You
can go further than a simple wishlist. Dedicated bargain hunters keep a
spreadsheet of the games I want to play, and how much I’d be prepared
to pay for each. Then, as the sale unfolds, they compare the deals
against their research.

3) Prepare a budget.

Work
out what you’re prepared to spend, and stick to it. This is your
opportunity to stock up on games you’d like to play at a later date. But
be realistic about what you will and won’t play. If you underspend now,
you can overspend at the Christmas sale. But if you overspend, you
could miss your rent. And that would be rubbish.

4) Ignore the upsell

This
is a controversial one, but it’s something we all believe: if you’re
given a choice, go for the barebones package over the special edition
with the DLC. You really don’t need the DLC.

Buy
the base version, and then spend on the DLC if you do really enjoy the
game and continue to play it. If you want some reassurance do some
digging around the game’s Steam achievements - see what population of
the playerbase has the achievements for completing the game. And then
for completing the DLC. Your answer: bugger all.

It’s
not just about the upsell on DLC. Think very hard about those publisher
or pack bundles. Those bundles aren’t acts of charity by publishers who
want to get their games out to the public. They’re there purely to
drive your average spend upwards with the perception of value. The
reality is that you’re unlikely to ever play what’s been bundled in the
pack in question, but you’ve spent more than the one game you were
really after.

5) Get the mobile app

There
will come a time when you’re away from your PC when a deal strikes.
Maybe you’re spending time with your *shudder* family. Or maybe you’re
away on some fancy business trip. Don’t worry: you can still buy games
from the web shop or the mobile app - but in the former case, you’ll
need to make sure you’ve authorised the computer you’re buying from via
Steam Guard - so check that you’ve got access to the email address
you’ve registered your Steam account at. The iOS and Android mobile apps
also allows you to queue downloads. Which is all kinds of amazing.

6) Don’t panic

If
you do miss out an daily extraordinary deal, don’t panic. Many of the
deals are repeated on the final day, as a kind of sales encore. So don’t
just panic buy the game after the deal. Hold some cash back, and wait
until the very last day of the sale.

7) Use the Steam Wallet

If
you’re planning to buy a bunch of games over the sale period, consider
adding a portion of your budget to the Steam Wallet. That way, you can
avoid multiple small charges appearing on your card - and in turn avoid
having the automated robots at your credit card company turning off the
money tap. Just be sensible about the amount of cash you’re loading into
Valve’s purse. Once the cash is in the wallet, you’re not getting it
back.

8) Think gifts
Got
a PC gaming chum with a birthday coming up? This is what Steam sales
and the wishlist was built for. Remember, you can buy games as gifts and
store them in your Steam inventory until the appropriate celebration.

9) Have fun
Retail is therapy. Enjoy it.