A strong sign of the overtly consumer-driven aspect of “gamer” culture is the fact that digital sales hold the importance that they do. The tradition began with the Steam Summer sales, the insane price cuts of which prompted other digital storefronts, such as The Humble Store, Good Old Games, and Green Man Gaming, to follow suit. Due to the cheap nature of digitally distributed titles, relatively new games could be dropped by anything from 50 to 90 percent, generating hype on forums and exciting players into making gratuitous purchases.

The frenzy isn’t quite as potent today as it was for the big summer and winter sales of old, but that’s partially because these effective sales tactics have developed into something new. Sales like these are now a near-constant feature across the web, with entire websites dedicated to running price comparisons on the seemingly endless deals going on throughout the internet at any given time.

The drastic reductions during the sales are matched by the jacked-up prices of new releases, capitalising on day-1 hype. A price-skimming balance has been struck within this ebb and flow from rip-off to bargain. Absurdly, some gamers buy nothing new only to find themselves with far more titles than they can play whenever any of the major sales roll around.