Steam’s Summer Sale Competition Leads To Confusion, Wishlist Culling

There are few sales that could be called “legendary”, but Steam’s annual summer event may earn it. While Steam has many sales throughout the year, the summer version is the one where the entire store seems to experience discounts – and usually the best ones of the year.

This year’s event is about what you’d expect in terms of overall sales, but Valve has added a Grand Prix mechanic which will see members of a winning “team” get a chance at claiming one of the games on their wishlist for free. Unfortunately, this has led to an odd side-effect: many people are unnecessarily removing games. That especially includes lower-cost indie titles – you know, those developed by people who aren’t usually blessed with beds of cash to sleep on.

The most unfortunate thing about this is that Valve could have been clearer up-front, preventing the issue. The wording is not entirely clear, but the only game that really matters in your wishlist is the one in the #1 slot. Fortunately, you can freely move those around, so as long as you have the game you’d like a chance at winning in that first slot, you are good to go.

Hi David, I think this may be because of Steam's new 'Grand Prix' minigame which gives users the chance at winning a free game on their Wishlist. This is making players remove less expensive titles in favor of higher cost AAA titles.

— Matty – Indie Marketing@Network N (@TheMatty_P_B) June 27, 2019

It seems many indie developers have taken notice of the misunderstanding, as usually wishlist updates during sales tend to work in their favor, not against them. At the same time, this may be giving some people a long overdue opportunity to clean up their wishlist, after ignoring for a while. Who knew our digital lives could get so cluttered?

If you’re wondering which “no-brainer” game belongs in your #1 spot, based on initial winnings, it looks like Cyberpunk 2077 is king.