Steam Autumn Sale begins today at 10 AM PST

For those of you who have been eagerly waiting for Steam’s Autumn Sale, the day has finally arrived. The sale begins today at 10 AM PST and ends December 1 at 10 AM PST, and while there will undoubtedly be many tempting discounts to choose from, it appears that there will not be any flash or daily sales.

A post from the Steamworks developer group, as quoted in a Reddit post, explains:

In past sale events, we’ve asked for two discounts—a duration discount that runs for the length of the sale, and a feature discount that runs in the event that a game is featured on the front page. This year, to optimize the sale for customers and to allow us to feature and recommend your products in more ways to more customers, we’re asking for just one discount, to run the length of the sale.

We’ll still be highlighting top games on the front page for 24-48 hour spans, but those products will stay at their most competitive discount, before and after being featured. It’s not a major change, but it does make the sale a lot more valuable for customers, and it allows us to build sale tools that highlight and recommend products all sale long, instead of just during front page features.

The apparent demise of the flash and daily sales has already drawn mixed reactions from the Steam-using public, with some claiming that it will reduce the possible discounts while others point out that it takes some of the pressure off of consumers, but we likely won’t know how it plays out in practice until the sale’s over and the customer feedback is in. Whether negative feedback prompts a reinstatement of the flash and daily sales in time for the Winter/Holiday sale that begins December 22 remains to be seen.