Steam launches summer sale with big discounts

If you’ve been wanting to increase your PC game collection, there’s never been a better time than now.

The digital distribution platform Steam has launched its annual summer sale with discounts such as: Portal 2 for just $4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 priced at onlr $29, and a whole bunch of game bundles that are discounted by as much as 84%.

 

Steam is by all measures the pioneer of digital downloads for computer games. After several years of being the main destination for gamers who want instant access to new games, it has locked up content deals with virtually every major game publisher.

For a while, it was essentially the only player in the downloadable PC game market. Sure, there were other platforms out there but if you wanted to be able to play a high-profile, brand new PC game and you wanted to start playing in minutes, Steam has been pretty much your only option.

In the past couple years, though, Steam has had to deal with new competing platforms. Most recently, EA, one of the largest publishers in the world, launched its own digital download platform called Origin. In an effort to drive new customers to its platform, EA stopped delivering content to Steam, a move that many are still upset about.

And then there’s Onlive, which can best be described as Netflix for gaming. Onlive’s main draw is a set-top box that players can connect to their TV and have instant access to games that are stored on the cloud. The company offers a monthly subscription service that gives gamers unlimited access to a wide selection of titles.

In other words, Steam has to be more competitive than other, which can only be a good thing for consumers.