Steam Open World Sale kicks off with Company of Heroes 2 giveaway

Steam Open World Sale 2021
(Image credit: Valve)

The Steam Open World Sale is now underway, featuring discounts of hundreds of games built around—you guessed it—open-world environments. That includes exploration games, builders, sandboxes, and survival: If you can roam around freely inside it, then the odds are good it's on sale.

There's some good stuff in here, including this handful of hastily assembled suggestions: 

I don't know if there's a direct connection—RTS games aren't the most obvious fit with an open-world sale—but the start of the new sale coincides with a giveaway of the WW2 RTS Company of Heroes 2 and the standalone expansion Ardennes Assault, which are free to take—and keep—until May 31. Ardennes Assault does feature a non-linear campaign on a dynamic map, which is maybe a bit of a stretch as open-world tie-ins goes, but it's good enough for me, especially since it's free.

The Steam Open World Sale runs until 10 am PT on May 31. You can jump into the action right here

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.