Brace yourself, Steam's Black Friday discounts will kick off with today's autumn sale
It's that time of year again, by which I mean time to call my bank and assure them that, no, no one's stolen my debit card. Steam will be joining the rest of the world in the Black Friday deals apocalypse later today, when its annual autumn sale begins at 10 am PST, 1 pm EST, and 6 pm GMT (plus 4 am AEST on November 23 for people living in the future, otherwise known as Australians).
The sale will run until November 29, at which point none of us will have any money left anyway, and will run alongside the now-familiar Steam Awards voting process, giving you a chance to vote on your favourite games of the last year and—I have to assume—earning you a few trading cards in the process. You should probably sell those cards, by the way: You're gonna need every penny you can get.
Valve has already teased a few games you can expect to receive discounts as part of the sale's announcement trailer (above). The trailer features clips from Hitman 3, Cyberpunk 2077, V Rising, Stray, Satisfactory, Hades, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and Slime Rancher 2. So if you've been teetering on the brink of picking one of those up in recent weeks, you might want to give it a few hours.
While I might joke about how much we're all going to spend on these endless Black Friday sales, it's worth remembering the sage advice of PCG's Dave James: You don't actually have to buy anything. That applies just as much to Steam games as it does to gleaming new peripherals, so try to remember it amid the glitz and glamour of all the discounts in a few hours. After all, it'll all go on sale again some day.
When, you ask? Great question! On December 22, as part of Steam's upcoming winter sale. You can always check out our useful (and constantly updated) guide to upcoming Steam sale dates if you want to know when a game will next get a discount (or if you're hemming and hawing about buying a game at full price during non-sales peacetime). Good luck to all, I'll see you on the other side.