Steam’s annual Summer Sale event began earlier today, June 19, and is scheduled to run until June 30. During the event, a number of the game’s in Steam’s catalog will be sold at discount and Steam users will be able to earn badges for their profiles as well as in-game content for some Valve games for purchasing games during the sale.
This year’s Steam Summer Sale is making full use of Valve’s recently introduced trading card system, which allows players to collect cards by playing games they own and craft them into badges. While the prior Summer Sales awarded a badge directly for purchasing games, the 2014 sale rewards cards, which can then be traded off to other players or crafted into badges. Crafting a badge automatically assigns the player to a random team, which gains points based on the rarity of the cards used to craft the badge. At the end of every day of the sale, the top thirty contributors to the winning team’s score receive three games from their Steam wishlist for free, while lesser contributors win additional trading cards to help their progress the following day.
The 2014 Summer Sale is also introducing a number of rewards for players of popular Valve titles such as Team Fortress 2 and DotA 2. Players who participate in badge crafting during the sale event also have a chance to receive special in-game items, which vary by game but include mostly skins and cosmetic items with a few weapons, animated emotes, and booster items mixed in.
Among the first day’s titles up for sale are popular, big-budget titles such as The Witcher 2 and Farcry 3 as well as a number of indie games like Don’t Starve. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, available 80% off for $2, is the a sequel to 2007’s critically acclaimed action RPG, which puts the player in the shoes of Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter in service to the king of the nation of Temeria. Farcry 3, which is being sold for 75% off at $7.49, is a first-person shooter where the player takes control of a tourist who leads a rebellion against the group of pirates and local warlords who took him hostage on a tropical island. Don’t Starve is an open world survival game, well known for dropping the player into an unforgiving environment with little help or instructions and allowing them to forge their own path through the game world. As in previous years, the community is also able to vote on which titles will be put on sale during the event.
The Steam Summer Sale is scheduled to run from June 19 to June 30 2014.