It’s that time once again – the Steam Winter Sale has begun. This is the 12th year the sale has run, and the store’s ever-expanding library means an ever-increasing line of discounts. This time, Valve boasts that over 15,000 games are discounted as part of this year’s event, which is set to run until January 3.
This year’s theme is ‘Extremely Cozy Cottage of Surprises.’ You’ll be able to open a door every day to get some bonus digital goods, like Steam Community emoticons, wallpapers, and in-game items. You’ll also get “some consumable digital items of questionable utility from Valve,” which I think sums up at least half of the giveaway content from the past few years of Steam sales.
This is also your chance to vote in the Steam Awards for the year, now that the community has decided on the year’s nominees. You can see the choices in the eight categories over at the Steam Blog, and they make sense this time around – no more ‘Mom’s Spaghetti’ award. GOTY choices include PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Monster Hunter: World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Hitman 2, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
Voting will remain open until the sale concludes on January 3. Winners across every category will be revealed in February.
Related: Grab discounts on the best PC games
The sale is now live on the Steam store. Increase your backlog responsibly – there’ll be plenty more sales in the future, so focus on what you want to play now. This is what I have to keep telling myself, at least.