Steam has announced new Steamworks tools for developers that will allow them to discount their own games when and how they like. Developers can choose to participate in weeklong deals, add custom discounts, and schedule sales up to two months in advance.
As posted to the Steam subreddit , the announcement was sent out to the Steamworks community group, saying, “With new Steamworks tools, you can configure your own discounts for custom sale periods or opt in to take part in upcoming weeklong sales. Once configured, the discounts will automatically start at the time specified.”
At Steam Dev Days , Steam's big initiative was to put more control in the hands of developers. Apparently those Dev Days promises were not just talk: these new discounting tools put what is arguably the biggest hallmark of the Steam storefront, the Steam sale, in the hands of developers.
The traditional Valve-organized sales have often been great for devs and gamers alike. In January, for example, developer Q-Games stated that a discount on Pixeljunk Eden from $10 to $1 doubled the game's lifetime sales on Steam in eight hours. It will be interesting to see how the development community come together to form their own group sales events, and how those events might affect or complement our beloved Steam sales.
