A Free Game for Christmas

[SaveTheZombies]

Are we getting a free game for Christmas from Steam? Gotten some real gems in years past, like L4D2.

[FFL2and3rocks]

Wait and see, but don't count on it.

[Start_Running]

Unlikely

[Vickers]

ive never gotten a free game for christmas and have been on steam for over a decade now, perhaps I missed some giveaways but Im doubting you/we will get anything free
edit: I do have l4d2 but I paid for it out of pocket back in the day

[Perrywinkle]

due the uproar because steam gift a game in the past, its unlikely to get any other game again.

[Insanity Claus]

Originally posted by Letalis:

ive never gotten a free game for christmas and have been on steam for over a decade now, perhaps I missed some giveaways but Im doubting you/we will get anything free
edit: I do have l4d2 but I paid for it out of pocket back in the day

I think OP is referring to the 2011 Coal Incident.

Valve did this cool thing where you could earn a game, a coupon or a piece of coal for completing daily "challenges" and unlocking achievements in certain games. You could take these pieces of coal and craft them, resulting in either a game or coupon. Any coal you had at the end of the promotion was a single entry into a contest where one person would win every single game on Steam. (there were several runner-up prizes, too) This was shortly after they had rolled out the coupon feature, so it was partly a way to promote and get devs/pubs to use the coupon feature.

Valve had actually purchased a ton of games to give away. Some people found an exploit where you duplicate pieces of coal and a few began buying tons of Humble Bundles that gave out Steam keys, meaning they could create tons of accounts to farm coal just from buying a handful of Humble Bundles for $0.01 each. (this was before Humble changed their rules regarding minimal payments for bundles with Steam codes) This resulted in a handful of uses crafting tons of coal and clearing out all of the keys for 3rd-party games that Valve had purchased and was giving away. Valve, being the nice guys they are, decided that they wouldn't end the promotion early. So, they made their own catalog of games available as prizes for crafting coal. IIRC, they also gave everyone a random Valve game right off the bat.

Here's the official Valve News post about the event: http://store.steampowered.com/news/7040/

VentureBeat article about the event: https://venturebeat.com/2011/12/20/you-could-own-every-steam-game-if-youre-the-grand-prize-winner-of-the-holiday-sale/

Threat Attack blog talking about the exploiting: https://blog.threattrack.com/steam-all-your-coal-are-belong-to-us/

I also wrote about this in the forums in 2012: http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/846940247780099281/#c846940248150434160

[Paradox]

There were already free offered games from other developers on Steam and trough Humble bundle few days/weeks ago.

Only these two remain, I think

http://store.steampowered.com/app/236870/HITMAN/

AX:EL - Air XenoDawn (just search in steamstore)

[Insanity Claus]

Plants vs. Zombies™ Game of the Year Edition - free on Origin
https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/plants-vs-zombies/plants-vs-zombies/standard-edition

Unfortunately, all the other good free offers (AC:Black Flag, Watch_Dogs, World In Conflict, CoH2, Brutal Legend) are over.

[Failure incarnate]

Steam gave us Kingdom: Classic for free earlier this month though.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/368230/Kingdom_Classic/

It's too late now, it was an "install it now and keep it forever" thing.

[SaveTheZombies]

I didn't have to do anything with coal or jump through any sort of hoops to get the games in christmas' past. I just had to go to the l4d2 store page and install. Another year got red orchestra 2. I got payday for free but I don't remember if it was a cristmas thing or some other promotion.

[999999999]

It is up to the publisher to decide to give away their games. Valve has done so in the past and so have many other publishers.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Originally posted by SaveTheZombies:

I didn't have to do anything with coal or jump through any sort of hoops to get the games in christmas' past. I just had to go to the l4d2 store page and install. Another year got red orchestra 2. I got payday for free but I don't remember if it was a cristmas thing or some other promotion.

I Have a Key For This Game if u Want it ↓
http://store.steampowered.com/app/391720/Layers_of_Fear

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by SaveTheZombies:

I didn't have to do anything with coal or jump through any sort of hoops to get the games in christmas' past. I just had to go to the l4d2 store page and install.

You had to be there in time. Join groups to get notified.

[999999999]

Payday 2, Shadow Warrior and a few others were given away free this year.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Portal was given in a spring...... others in summer.

[999999999]

Got that in the Orange Box. Didn't help on this account.