So long, daily and flash deals

Valve is tweaking the way it handles major sales on Steam -- at least the next pair. The upcoming autumn sale (November 25 - December 1) and winter sale (December 22 - January 4) will not feature the limited-time daily deals and flash deals of old, reports Eurogamer.

Valve described the scenario in a message to the Steamworks developer group, which read:

We'll still be highlighting your top games on the front page for 24-48 hour spans, but those products will stay at their most competitive discount, before and after being featured. It's not a major change, but it does make the sale a lot more valuable for customers, and it allows us to build sale features that recommend your product all sale long, instead of just during its front page feature. For a brand new release, if you can't get approval for your best discount for the full length of the sale, that's OK and we can work on a plan for that game. But the vast majority of your catalog should be running its best discount for the duration of the sale.

My wallet is thankful. The pressure of a timer counting down on flash sales usually chipped away at me and resulted in an impulse buy. There was a sense of urgency. Now, I'm probably going to load up the storefront on the first day of the sale and not return for the duration.

Still, I am curious to see how these changes affect sale prices on the whole.

No flash or daily deals during Steam autumn, winter sales [Eurogamer]