Valve has announced some rule changes to game discounts on Steam, which will come into effect next month.
According to some Steamworks documentation, a new set of rules surrounding game discount policy on Steam will be starting on March 28, 2022. This includes the maximum game discount becoming 90 per cent, and the absolute minimum changing to 10 per cent.
At the time of publication, XCOM 2 is discounted on Steam by 94 per cent, which SteamDB calls a “new historical low” for the game.
The time between discounts for an individual game on Steam is changing too, as it will reduce from six weeks to four, meaning 28 days must pass between the end of one discount and the start of another. Launch discounts for new games can still run, but once they end, there must be 28 days before another deal can start.
Valve also noted that these new cooldown rules for the time between discounts apply to all types of promotions on Steam, except for the four major seasonal sales: Lunar New Year Sale, Summer Sale, Autumn Sale and Winter Sale.
Custom discount periods can also now last no longer than two weeks or be shorter than one day.
These discount changes will be coming into effect one month after the launch of the Steam Deck, as the portable PC will start shipping on February 28. Developers with early access to the Steam Deck have been praising the handheld, as Jonathan Smårs of Iron Gate said: “I was surprised how well games work on it without any changes, and how good it feels to play on it. Valheim worked from day one on Steam Deck without any changes”.
In other news, Yacht Club Games upcoming title Mina The Hollower has reached over 16,000 backers on Kickstarter whilst edging towards £1million pledged in total. The Kickstarter even reached its original goal in less than 24 hours.
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