Christmas just wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for the excuse to acquire an unfathomable number of PC gaming titles at knock-down prices, but whether they actually get played or not is an entirely different matter. This year’s Steam Christmas sale is what we’re referring to, of course, and its start date has been leaked, although it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise for most.
PayPal is once again the leaker of the start date, and this year it’s the Japanese branch at fault. In a promotional email sent by PayPal Japan to its subscribers the start date of the Steam 2014 Christmas sale is stated as December 18th, which is one day earlier than last year’s December 19th start.
Other reports have clarified the exact start time and end date of the sale: Thursday, 18th December 2014 at 6pm GMT until the end of Friday, 2nd January 2015. Thankfully there should still be surprises a-plenty as the deals that will be available during the two-week extravaganza have not been revealed thus far.
In the run-up to the Christmas sale Steam is running its 'holiday auction' where users can trade inventory items, such as trading cards, for currency called gems that are used to bid for full games like Civilization: Beyond Earth and This War of Mine. The Steam holiday auction has started immediately and runs through till December 18th, further reinforcing the likelihood of this being the Christmas sale start date. It is, however, worth noting that Valve has already temporarily closed the holiday auction after an exploit was revealed that allowed some users to create almost-limitless amounts of gems, thereby bidding legitimate Steam users out of the auctions.
Most people may have already picked up most of what they need in Steam’s summer sale or the recent Black Friday to Cyber Monday sale, but it’s worth mentioning that the Steam Christmas sale is the longest and biggest PC Gaming sale of the year.
GOG and Humble are also hosting their own Christmas sales if Steam doesn’t appeal. Which PC games are you hoping to pick up in this year’s Christmas sales?
