Your guide to a better future

This annual seasonal sale on the Steam platform usually means deep discounts on PC games.

Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming

Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a semi-regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times

One of the great joys of PC gaming is that you can buy games from a variety of sources. Consoles like the PS5 or Xbox Series X , on the other hand, are controlled by companies that approve and control access to all the content on those platforms. The practical effect is that PC games are often discounted, with prices varying among different storefronts, including Steam, GOG and the Epic Game Store. 

Valve's Steam online store is having its annual Summer Sale, which runs from June 23 to July 7, 2022. Yes, Steam has many other sales during the year, but this is one of the bigger ones. 

With new GPU prices finally cooling off and the introduction of exciting new PC hardware like the excellent handheld Steam Deck, PC gaming is in a sweet spot right now. 

I've collected a handful of what I think are noteworthy deals. All should be available for the entire length of the sale, although you'd be wise to comparison shop (using a tool like CheapShark.com) to see if other online PC game shops are offering even lower prices. 

The deals range from evergreen classics like The Sims 4 (which, yes, still has a big audience) to newer games like New World or Chivalry 2, although most are what you'd call midlist games from the past few years. This list is focused on games that I think are both interesting and have fairly deep discounts. I'll be crowdsourcing additional picks from my colleagues in future updates. 

Best deals at the Steam Summer Sale

I'll keep digging around the Steam Summer Sale for more good deals on worthwhile games and update this list as needed.