If you have been a member of Steam for the past couple of years, you must remember the removal of flash sales, a prominent feature of Steam Sales that allowed buyers to save additional money by pocketing extremely popular, even recently released games at a steep discount. Due to some inherent problems with the system, Valve was forced to ditch it, and offer better sale prices on all games.
The problem with flash sales was that customers often complained that the lack of knowledge about what deals might be upcoming made them miss the deals they wanted. Also, there was a problem mass processing refunds from people, which forced Valve to ditch the system. This meant that the discount percentage for games went down in general, though the Steam sales continued to be something to look forward to for gamers around the world.
I've just been informed that @steam_games Flash Sales are returning, with a twist. Devs can chose for the sales to last 6, 8, 10 or 12 hours, shaking up sales almost every hour, and making sales feel more like an event again. pic.twitter.com/zbGtKYQBCt
— Tyler McVicker (@Tyler_McV) August 3, 2018
According to Tyler McVicker of the Valve News Network, flash sales might be returning, but with certain added changes to address the issues with the system. The most important feature of the “new” flash sales was that developers themselves can choose the period of the sale, which meant the Flash Sale section during a Steam Sale would update every hour or so, maintaining a level of variety.
While an official statement from Valve has not confirmed this, Tyler’s predictions have been accurate in the past. Not that Valve actually mentions major changes like this to the public. It’s a “wait and watch” situation till the next Steam sale, that’s for sure.