Steam
As has been the case for years, the dates of the upcoming Steam sales have emerged online well in advance. The reason why the Half-Life company fails to keep them secret is simple: they communicate them to all of its partners (Steam publishers, developers, and so on), of which there are literally thousands. Somewhere it is inevitable that they come out. In this case it was the SteamDB site that collected the rumors, which naturally brought them back online to everyone's delight.It begins with a well-known event that will take place from 21 to 25 October 2021: the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest, which will have Auroch Digital as a partner. Basically expect events and discounts dedicated to digital board games, especially role-playing games.
The second round of sales will be that of Halloween, with discounts on all horror games or related in some way to the cheerful and gloomy holidays. The Steam Halloween 2021 Sale will run from October 28th to November 1st.
The third event with discounts and offers will be the Fall Sale, which runs from November 24th through the end of the month. Then the winter sales will arrive, starting on December 22nd and ending on January 5, 2022. It should be emphasized that these two sales periods will be general, that is, publishers who want can join.
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Phil Spencer Pitches Steam Deck As The Xbox Switch
Steam Deck
ValveYesterday, Xbox head Phil Spencer raised eyebrows with a new tweet extolling the virtues of Valve’s upcoming Steam Deck, the portable PC device meant to be an easy way to play Steam games on the go, but also…more than that.
While it was always likely this was possible, here we have Phil Spencer confirming that the Steam Deck can run Microsoft games like Halo through xCloud steaming, something you can’t do on say, the Nintendo Switch at the moment.
So, in effect, if all goes according to plan, the Steam Deck could in fact operate like a Switch for not just Steam games, but all the Microsoft exclusives found in xCloud as well, a way to take your Xbox titles on the go. It’s no huge surprise, I suppose, given what we know about the Steam Deck before this, but here we have the public face of Xbox, Spencer, publicly plugging the Steam Deck as a way to expand the places you can play Xbox. While this isn’t “official” marketing cross-promotion, it’s certainly something of note.
Microsoft has long stated that their ultimate goal is to get Xbox Game Pass and xCloud on as many devices as possible. For a while, that’s mostly been console and PC, but it’s expanded into mobile, and now mobile includes brand new open devices like the Steam Deck here. I am sure that Microsoft would put xCloud or Game Pass on Switch or PlayStation if they could, but even in this age of crossplay and declaring the end of console wars, no one has been willing to go that far yet.
But it’s easy to see how Microsoft and Valve could work well together on using the Steam Deck to their mutual benefit. Microsoft wants more people subscribing to Game Pass and xCloud and playing their exclusives, even if that’s not on a literal Xbox. Valve wants people to buy the rather expensive Steam Deck hardware, and while it would be nice if they were buying and playing every game on Steam, I’m sure they don’t really care that people might be using it for xCloud instead. Hell, they’re more or less encouraging it, and using it as a showcase as to the full range of possibilities for the device, above and beyond what the Switch can or is willing to do.
How far will this cross-collaboration go? Will it end with a Spencer tweet or will Microsoft and Valve team up for some kind of actual branded promotion for Xbox games on Steam Deck? I would not be surprised to see that manifest, given the trajectory that’s been started here.
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