Gird your wallet: Steam’s Winter Sale is now live

By Danny Cowan Updated December 22, 2016

steam winter sale 2016 is coming version 1482273059 on alienware — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Every year Steam launches a holiday-theme sales event, and every year we wind up spending more money on games than gifts for our families. Well, we hope you didn’t max out your credit cards, yet because it’s that time of the year again.

This morning the Steam Winter Sale touched down, and will come to an end next week, on December 29. That means that starting now, you’ll be able to spend a negligible amount of money on relatively new releases and – for perhaps the third or fourth time – a copy of Borderlands 2.

Steam Winter Sale On Now! Plus, Vote For The Steam Awards! #SteamSale #SteamAwards https://t.co/2Ltx8oYpVP pic.twitter.com/T3iqTvsPgI

— Steam (@Steam) December 22, 2016

This news comes only about a month after the Steam Autumn Sale, which included deals on games like Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Civilization VI. Like the previous sale, Valve is simultaneously holding a vote on the Steam Awards, which presents users with a range of different categories to pick their favorites in.

The first category, for instance, is “The Villain Most in Need of a Hug Award.” The contenders come from titles such as Borderlands 2, Dead by Daylight, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, and Portal 2. We can assume based on past sales that these games will be sold at a discount at the same time.

Just like last year, this year’s Winter Sale features some seriously deep discounts on brand-new titles and series — including the entire Doom series for 40 percent to 67 percent off. Last year we saw “thousands of games and software” marked down with Winter Sale-flavored specialty trading cards thrown into the mix. This time around, we’re seeing even more games go on sale, which makes sense, considering 38 percent of the entire Steam catalog was released in 2016, according to Steam Spy on Twitter.

38% of all Steam games were released in 2016 pic.twitter.com/JiX2pt6JhB

— Steam Spy (@Steam_Spy) November 30, 2016

It’s also not a bad time to pick up some last minute Steam Gifts for the gamers in your life.

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