Why do we even have an Autumn sale when the Christmas sale is less than a month away?

[Neonetik]

Let me make something clear. I'm not against sales, and lower prices are pretty much always a great sight to consumers, but I'm a bit confused at the timing on sales here. The Christmas sale is usually the biggest sale of the year, alongside with the summer sale. Usually, the biggest discounts on the most products happen during the Christmas sale. So why oh why does Steam have the Autumn sale be literally less than a month away from the Christmas sale? For goodness sales, it bleeds over into December. I feel like it's a safe bet to assume prices will be further discounted during the Christmas sale, so surely waiting less than a month is the more ideal thing to do if you want to splurge and destroy your wallet, isn't it? Obviously if the only choice is to either have the sale or not, I'd prefer to have it, but wouldn't it be a far better option to actually spread these things out throughout the year, instead of having 3 sales (halloween, autumn, and christmas) be practically side by side, with one being the dominant one rendering the others less valuable? It's a bit like if your boss didn't allow employees any bathroom breaks for 7 hours, and then in the last hour of work, they give everyone 3 bathroom breaks, 2 of which being only 20 seconds long, and the last one being 5 minutes long. It just seems like a weird thing to do. Bad example, but you get what I mean.
I could be totally wrong and there's a bunch of good reasons. That's why I'm asking. Please share your view!
Thanks.

[ともり]

Winter*
Yeah. I don't think anyone's buying things in this sale. Most are waiting for the winter sale. (Like us)

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

It encompasses the 2 largests sale days of the year.

[Zekiran]

Black Friday / Cyber Monday are the biggest overall world-wide sale dates, so yes - having a late Autumn sale is absolutely fine, when there will be another sale around the end of the year for the people who've just gotten holiday money from THAT holiday season.

One covers the "buying it for other people" angle, the other later sale is for people buying for themselves using gift money.

[Your Mom's Oshi]

I grabbed a few games that had a good price. I really don't care if they have a chance to be a little cheaper in a month because I don't know if I'll have the time or interest to play them then.

[Spud the Spud]

Not all games can compete on the same level. Let's say you have a game that has others in the same catagory which are bigger/better/more popular, you don't want to go toe to toe with it. This way you can get in on a sale and make some money while the other game is going to clean up during the christmas sale and shut you out anyway.

It's not that different from how movie studios stagger their movie releases, so they don't face too much direct competition when they're being released. Nobody wants to go up against the blockbuster, but coming out a few weeks sooner/later lets them make money with their movie too.

[Darren]

Also note not all games will be in the Winter sale that are on sale now. Most probably will be but every year we have people complaining during the winter sale about how a game in the autumn sale isn't on sale now, or is at a more expensive price (due to a smaller discount).

[Jack O'Neill]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Black Friday / Cyber Monday are the biggest overall world-wide sale dates

Nope, Singles Day is the biggest overall world-wide sales date. Despite tariffs.

[Tito Shivan]

I remeber when there was no black Friday sale and people asked why there was no Sale.

[Csontzuzo]

Originally posted by ｎｉｇｈｔ:

Winter*
Yeah. I don't think anyone's buying things in this sale. Most are waiting for the winter sale. (Like us)

Iam sorry to tell you, but since no flash sale the long sales like summer/winter are the worst sales.

The best sales or discounts now comes during daily sales, midweek madness, weekend sale, publisher weekends, as winter+summer just too long for keeping up the historical lowest deals.

[SPG]

It's been my observation that prices during this sale have - in the past - been better than in the christmas/winter sale for higher profile titles.

I used to think prices would be better during christmas or summer sales, but that was the old Steam days. Now, they are either the same of worse than this sale.

[Marius]

I am fine with only a summer and a winter sale. Dropping all the other sales, except perhaps a midweek sale.

[Lecadre]

the main problem is that the autumn sale is way too late, its literally at the end of autumn and into the winter, it should have been somewhere in september or october

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

I remeber when there was no black Friday sale and people asked why there was no Sale.

Some people. Most of the world never had a "Black Friday", or for that matter, any need for one.

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.