The Steam Summer Sale is live with deals on thousands of games

Valve's Steam Summer Sale for 2021 began June 24 and runs until 1 p.m. ET on July 8, discounting thousands of PC games across the storefront, according to Engadget. The sale covers everything from recent releases to older franchise back-catalogs, with some series seeing discounts as steep as 87 percent.

Among the titles Engadget highlighted: Halo: The Master Chief Collection at 50 percent off ($20), Horizon Zero Dawn at 40 percent off ($30), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at 50 percent off ($30), No Man's Sky at 50 percent off ($30) and Forza Horizon 4 at 50 percent off ($30). Dark Souls III was discounted 75 percent to $15, and Alien: Isolation was cut 75 percent to $10.

Cyberpunk 2077 was marked down 33 percent to $40, and Red Dead Redemption 2 was also discounted 33 percent, per the report. Mass Effect Legendary Edition -- the remastered trilogy compilation that had recently launched -- was included at 17 percent off, priced at $50, alongside Mortal Kombat 11 at 70 percent off ($15) and the acclaimed role-playing game Disco Elysium at 35 percent off ($26).

More titles Engadget flagged

Engadget's roundup also pointed to several other notable discounts: the roguelike Hades at 30 percent off ($17.49), survival game Rust at 50 percent off ($20), the cooperative adventure A Way Out at 75 percent off ($7.50), and Doom Eternal's standard edition at 67 percent off ($19.79). The 2020 open-world role-playing game The Outer Worlds was discounted 60 percent to $24, Xbox exclusive-turned-PC-port Battletoads was cut 75 percent to $5, and the remake NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 was marked down 25 percent to $45, according to the report.

Franchise-wide discounts

Beyond individual titles, Engadget noted deep discounts across entire franchise collections: up to 60 percent off Final Fantasy titles, up to 80 percent off Street Fighter games, and up to 87 percent off the Resident Evil series. Battlefield V was listed at its lowest price to date, $12.50.

What the sale means for shoppers

The two-week window gives PC gamers ample time to compare deals rather than rush a purchase, since Steam sale pricing typically holds steady for the full sale period rather than rotating daily. The breadth of the 2021 sale, spanning both AAA blockbusters like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 and older cult favorites like Disco Elysium and Alien: Isolation, reflected Valve's standard approach to its flagship summer event.

Where the summer sale sits on Valve's calendar

The Summer Sale and its winter counterpart are Valve's two largest storewide events on Steam, each typically running about two weeks, longer than the roughly week-long Spring and Autumn sales and the shorter genre-specific "Fests" the platform runs at other points in the year. That structure meant PC shoppers who skipped a title during the June 24 event still had a later window to catch it discounted again before the year was out.

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Engadget. It restores a story originally published on this site in June 2021; figures are as reported at the time.