It was during Steam's Winter Sale that you could buy Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death, the platform's best bargain-bin title, for just 99 cents. Steam's midweek and weekend sales reduce game prices by a great deal, but it's Valve's legendary, thematic Steam seasonal sales that feature incredibly deep discounts on individual games, publishers' entire libraries, or bundles of their top games. There are numerous free-to-play games, too, like Crusader Kings II and Ring of Elysium. Indie and older games can cost anywhere from $5 to $19.99, depending on their release date and popularity. Newer games are priced similarly to retail releases, with most big titles costing $49.99 or $59.99. In fact when you purchase games via itch.io, what you are actually buying are Steam activation keys. Like itch.io, however, Steam has a wide array of indie titles. That said, the store isn't a comprehensive library of legacy titles (for a wider selection of older games, try GOG.com). Steam's library goes back several decades, and it includes excellent classic games like Half-Life and Psychonauts. Even competitors with their own digital game stores, like EA and Microsoft, now sell games on Steam.
It has a variety that its competitors can't match. Speaking of that VR game, seeing as Valve produces one of the finest VR headsets on the market, you'll find plenty of virtual reality experiences on Steam.
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Of course, as Steam is a Valve product, it has titles you won't find in other PC game stores, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Portal, and the recent Half-Life: Alyx. Still, Steam currently offers thousands of titles, ranging from simple arcade-like games (Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+) to simulations (Football Manager 2020) to AAA behemoths ( Monster Hunter World).
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For example, you can only buy the Forza Horizon racing series from Xbox, Overwatch from, Fortnite from the Epic Games Store, and Red Dead Redemption 2 from the Rockstar Games Launcher.
If there's a major new PC game, Steam likely has the title-provided that the game's publisher isn't selling it exclusively from its own store.
The free Steam app is a terrific way to buy new releases or preorder upcoming releases. Steam Machines may not have taken off, but you'll find Linux titles, as well. Steam offers mostly Windows games along with some macOS titles. The Steam app remains our Editors' Choice PC gaming marketplace, despite lacking integrated video recording capabilities and a way for its users to speak to a customer service representative should they experience a problem. Valve's PC gaming client offers a store, cloud saves, remote downloads, video streaming, and many other gamer-friendly features. Steam, however, is infinitely more fun to explore. Both apps are the leaders in their respective categories, both are massive in size and scope, and both may be intimidating to first-time users. Steam is the Adobe Photoshop of video game distribution.
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