Steam sales have historically been a reason to extend your backlog, but Valve tried something different last year with the Spring Cleaning Event – a bit of encouragement for users to play the games they already own.
It doesn’t have quite the same ring as the chance to buy dozens of games for a handful of dollars (you can keep counting the days to the Steam Summer sale 2019 for that), but it does let you feel slightly less guilty about all the times you’ve done it in the past. The event presents you with daily tasks to gamify your gaming.
Completing tasks will level you up, get you new badges, and let you earn new trophies. One task has you play a randomly-selected game from your library. Another asks you to play games you haven’t previously launched. Yet another asks you to try one of the titles running a free weekend for the event. Free games include Dead By Daylight, Endless Space 2, Assetto Corsa, Grim Dawn, Don’t Starve Together, Black Desert Online, and Left 4 Dead 2.
Check it out on Steam. The event concludes on May 28 at 10:00 PDT / 13:00 EDT / 18:00 BST.
Read more: Check out the best free Steam games
If you simply need to spend money on discounted games in the immediate future, well, there’s always the Epic Games store sale. Though it’s missing a few big names at the moment, it’s still offering some huge discounts on dome excellent games – even if the catalogue is a lot smaller than Steam’s.