Steam Changes Sale Rules - No Games Will be More Than 90% Off

We've learned more about how Steam's sale policy will change starting March 28 (Valve announced corrections in this regard in early February this year). Valve's announcement addressed to partners reads that the upcoming fixes will affect both pricing and the duration of special offers.

A sale, not free

One of the biggest changes that will go into effect on Steam on March 28 is the maximum discount.

1. Publishers will not be able to reduce the price of a game by more than 90% and by no less than 10%.
2. At least 28 days will have to pass between discounts applied to a product (until now it was six weeks).
3. Exceptions to this rule are events such as Chinese New Year promotions and summer, fall, and winter sales.
4. It is worth mentioning that the 28-day period between one promotion and another also includes non-standard price reductions, e.g. deals of the day, mid-week madness, weekend deals, weekly deals, publisher weekends, etc.

Publishers need to play fair

If it's going to be cheaper, it's has to be cheaper

Steam, being an online store, has certainly experienced a lot of foul play from publishers. This includes the practice of raising the price of the game a moment before the discount, to proudly show of a, for example, "70% off" sign during the sale, in order to maximize profits. Changes aim at curbing this type of situations.

1. From March 28 Valve will prevent offering a deal on a the product, the price of which (in any currency) has increased in the last 28 days.
2. Publishers will not be able to change the price of their game while a discount is active or planned for the future.

Other Changes Valve Will Be Making

In addition to the aforementioned fixes, the announcement will also include information such as:

1. The duration of custom discounts cannot be longer than two weeks and shorter than one day.
2. Discounts associated with seasonal events will not be available to publishers whose game debuted in the 28 days preceding the discount.
3. The four-week gap rule between sales also applies to titles discounted at launch.

The improvements Valve will be making to its sale rules are definitely a good thing, especially for the community. Thanks to the changes players will not fall prey to dirty tricks straight from stationary stores (not everything is a deal, what says "off" in the store or something like that).

We can also expect that thanks to the updated sale policy creators will be a bit more reasonable pricing their games on launch. Perhaps this will allow for reduction, at least to some extent, of situations in which players who buy a game on launch, are disgusted by the fact that shortly after its release the price drops dramatically (now it will happen at the earliest in 28 days after the release)

1. Finally, it's worth reminding that the new rules will take effect on March 28, 2022.