I feel like the Steam sales stopped being good a few years ago. I think when they stopped doing flash sales? Now most games are just regular sale price off. No real special deals anymore.
I miss checking daily for new updates on what was for sale and getting a game at a really good price. Now everything is the same price for the entire two weeks so it feels exciting for maybe the first 5 minutes when you check your wishlist and after that it's done.
Don't want to be too negative though. Hope there are some good deals and everyone can grab something at a good price!
I don't understand why you would want your sale to be gimmicky, I hate that. Go shop on Temu, DealDash or something like that if you want lightning sale thrills. I prefer to just have a sale and take some time about what I want to buy.
Edit: because it seemed directed at the person I am commenting to.
They stopped doing flash sales when refunds were a thing. People could buy a game, see it was 90% later, refund and buy it when it was much cheaper. Or if you a week or two before the sale you could do the same thing, but the lightning deals has the biggest impact for refunds. Steam didn't stop them, but the game devs just stopped in light of that.
I know people really like refunds but I miss absolutely ridiculously low priced games. The games used to be so cheap, I couldn't even care if a game was actually trash. Got it for a dollar who cares.
Honestly they should just stop refunds on flash sale items unless in extenuating circumstances like "This game literally doesn't work for anybody" or "The price literally went back up as I was purchasing it so I paid the higher price"
I remember when the sale dates were a mystery. There was more excitement to the expectation and wondering than there is just waiting for a specific day.