Steam’s Holiday Sale is stealing our money!

Binh Nguyen 31 Dec, 2010 at 9:47pm ET Article published in Gaming

Every year, holiday sales begins on Black Friday—no problem, because that normally ends on the 24th of December. Well lucky for us, Steam does not go by those rules. They started their annual holiday deal on December 20th and it goes until January 2nd. During this time, incredible deals show up each and every day.

People say PC gaming is dying, but judging by the number of people complaining and lauding the Steam sales, it’s doing just fine.

Here are some of the games that have been purchased by some of the Icrontic staffers. This is such a tiny sample of the IC community, and yet there are dozens of games here:

primesuspect:

For himself:

Recettear: An Item Shop Tale
Flight Control HD
All the DLC for Defense Grid
Deus EX: GotY Edition
Chime
Swords and Soldiers HD
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Indie 2D pack
Supreme Commander 2
Shatter
Indie Flight Pack
Command & Conquer 4

For gifts to others:

Recettear: An Item Shop Tale
Flat Out: Ultimate Carnage
Deathspank
Flight Control HD
Plants vs. Zombies GotY Edition
Shank

Gifts received:

DeathSpank
Super Meat Boy

shwaip :

For himself:

Modern Warfare 2
Deus EX Pack
Mass Effect 2
FEAR Complete Pack

For gifts to others:

Fallout 3

Thrax :

For himself:

Aliens vs. Predator
Borderlands
Crysis Maximum Edition
Deus EX: GotY Edition
Deus EX: Invisible War
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Europa Universalis III Complete
Fallout 3: GotY
Just Cause 2
Mass Effect 2
Metro 2033
Mirror’s Edge
Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum
Serious Sam HD: Gold Edition
SimCity 4 Deluxe
Star Wars – Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
The Witcher: Enhance Edition
Indie Flight Pack
Unreal Pack

mertesn:

For himself:

Boardlands GotY
Fallout: New Vegas
Greed Corp
Gyromancer
Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum
Mirror’s Edge
Machinarium
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry Complete

fatcat:

For himself:

Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Batman: Arkham Asylum GotY Edition

Gifts received:

Boarderlands
Cities XL

Church4252 :

For himself:

Neverwinter Nights 2: Platium
Sid Meier’s Civilzation V
Shank
Flight Control HD

What did you get for yourself? For others?

Comments

31 Dec 2010 ~ 9:56pm UPSLynx Man, I can't stop buying cheap video games. So far:

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
IL2 Sturmovik: 1946
Crysis Warhead
Greed Corp
Just Cause 2
Metro 2033
STALKER Call of Pripyat
Super Meat Boy
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Kane and Lynch 2

More to come, too. Probably picking up the Indie Flight Pack.

It's funny. When I see a game going for $15, I scoff. What a joke! I would buy a game at a price like that in a heartbeat in any store.
31 Dec 2010 ~ 10:06pm Gate28 I got Shank from Prime and STALKER from someone else as a gift.
31 Dec 2010 ~ 11:01pm GnomeWizardd Batman Arkham asylum
Mass Effect
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
rainbow Six Vegas 2
Shattered Horizon

Gifted

Lego Star wars trilogy
31 Dec 2010 ~ 11:17pm GnomeWizardd Wait add I bought myself the Jedi Knight pack and also gifted one
31 Dec 2010 ~ 11:42pm BlackHawk So far I've bought Knights of the Old Republic, Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War.
31 Dec 2010 ~ 11:47pm fatcat add gifted to me:

The Hitman Collection for $7.47

Alidra
31 Dec 2010 ~ 11:49pm GnomeWizardd Add Gifted Unreal tournament and Bought for myself Unreal tournament ( me and my dad have some unfinished business with that game!
1 Jan 2011 ~ 12:12am NullenVoyd Gawd, too many to list.
Funny thing, a number of them are games I already owned the box version.

Just wish GFWL wasn't involved for some of these titles.
1 Jan 2011 ~ 1:20am primesuspect Yeah I had an issue with Flat Out that I bought for my son. It wouldn't run at all until I installed GFWL. Nice undocumented bug. They could, you know, install it for you, or at least TELL you that GFWL is required. Fail.
1 Jan 2011 ~ 1:58am Thrax I've already bought more. STALKER, STALKER: CoP, C&C4 and Sup Com 2 for $13 total! WTFFFF. I also bought the Indie Flight Pack! (omg Gratuitous Space Battles).
1 Jan 2011 ~ 2:54am Cliff_Forster I'm at a point where I have so many unfinished games, but yet, more cheap games tempt me!
1 Jan 2011 ~ 11:18am pigflipper So far I've gotten:

Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box
Borderlands: GotY edition
Bad Company 2: Vietnam
Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition

Most expensive was BC2: Vietnam @ $10. I love the holiday sale.
1 Jan 2011 ~ 2:37pm Jingalls I've picked up these so far:
Amnesia
ARMA 2
DiRT 2
Half-Life Complete (6 bucks!)
Section 8
Tom Clancy Pack
Unreal Pack
1 Jan 2011 ~ 11:53pm Koreish I am disappoint. No Grim Fandango.
2 Jan 2011 ~ 1:58am pigflipper

Koreish wrote:

I am disappoint. No Grim Fandango.

The lack of love shown to older Lucas Arts titles (exception: Monkey Island and Sam and Max to a certain degree) makes me a very sad panda. Do want Loom, Grim Fandango and TIE Fighter/X-Wing.
2 Jan 2011 ~ 7:31am Snarkasm Picked up the Hitman bundle, Zeno Clash, Medal of Honor and The Witcher. I still cannot, for the life of me, really get into The Witcher, though. Bummer.
2 Jan 2011 ~ 10:23am fatcat Snarkasm gifted me Medal of Honor. Thank you!
3 Jan 2011 ~ 2:25am TurboPenguin I created an additional steam account... With all the good deals I was able to get a second account for n00b friends when they came over.

Here is what I got...

Team Fortress 2
Supreme Commander 2 + DLC
Mafia II + all DLC
Left 4 Dead 1 & 2
F1 2010
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (x2)
Half-Life 2
Counter-Strike Source
Hit Man
Medal of Honor

Holy crap! Uhh gtg! Must hide bank statement from wife!
3 Jan 2011 ~ 3:03am Canti

pigflipper wrote:

The lack of love shown to older Lucas Arts titles (exception: Monkey Island and Sam and Max to a certain degree) makes me a very sad panda. Do want Loom, Grim Fandango and TIE Fighter/X-Wing.

Full Throttle
3 Jan 2011 ~ 3:19am Thrax $86 later, I walked away with 38 games that I really, really wanted. The retail price for them is way over $500.
3 Jan 2011 ~ 9:52am Cliff_Forster I re purchased Crysis and Warhead for Steam integration (silly, I know), Plants vs. Zombies, Sonic the Hedgehog for Genesis Classics, the Indie Flight Pack, and for $6.80 I picked up Dead Space, I'll get around to it eventually.
3 Jan 2011 ~ 12:20pm erichblas2005 Well they raped me this season.
Bioshock 2
dark sector
deus ex: invisible war
dirt 2
fi 2010
flatout: ultimate carnage
prince of persa: the two trones
tom clancy's ghost recon: advanced warfighter
tom clancy's HAWX
3 Jan 2011 ~ 12:31pm ardichoke If it weren't for the fact that I was pretty much broke all last month, I would have bought a hell of a lot of more games. I ended up only buying these two

Fallout 3 GOTY
Assassin's Creed II
3 Jan 2011 ~ 10:40pm MiracleManS I escaped the entire sale without buying a single game. That's right. Not a single one.
3 Jan 2011 ~ 11:14pm CrazyJoe I only purchased Borderlands for Fatcat and Batman: Arkham Asylum for myself...
4 Jan 2011 ~ 12:51am Bandrik I went into the holiday season knowing full well that Steam would be sappin' mah wallet. Too many games for me to be comfortable with listing. I tried to have a mix of big-name and indie games, as I have been greatly enjoying both Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV.

I just tried to limit myself to games I knew I would play, with the exception of a few impulse buys that were under $3. I figured that if a game was less than the price of a McDonalds burger, then it was still much less of a risk to try. At the very least, it can't give me food poisoning.
4 Jan 2011 ~ 8:01am AlexDeGruven My wallet managed to survive with only taking the $5 for Burnout: Paradise.
4 Jan 2011 ~ 10:09am Annes I did amazingly well compared to last year. Although it should be noted that I bought almost every single Indie Pack during the Black Friday Steam Sale. That being said, I only bought Machinarium. I desperately wanted CivV but assumed it would go on super sale at the end. I was wrong, and I'm ok without it...for now.
4 Jan 2011 ~ 10:26am Garg I held myself back and only got the Indie Flight Pack and Braid.

Still, Gratuitous Space Battles will be the end of me.
4 Jan 2011 ~ 11:49am pigflipper I ended up adding the Indie Flight Pack to my purchases as well.
4 Jan 2011 ~ 12:17pm TiberiusLazarus Came out with Just Cause 2, the Crysis set, indie flight pack, Flight Control HD, Mass Effect 2 (which I just remembered I even bought), and Sim City 4. All in all I'm pretty happy with everything.
7 Jan 2011 ~ 1:38pm DogSoldier I picked up Borderlands and all 4 DLC paks for it. I also got Serious Sam HD - The Second Encounter.. All for less than $50.
28 Oct 2011 ~ 10:31am ardichoke

ardichoke wrote:

If it weren't for the fact that I was pretty much broke all last month, I would have bought a hell of a lot of more games. I ended up only buying these two

Fallout 3 GOTY
Assassin's Creed II

Heh... I JUST started playing ACII last night... because I finally beat ACI last night. Where has all my precious gaming time gone these past couple years?