Steam announces 2024 sale and Fest dates - including one dedicated to dinosaurs and robots

Each year, Steam announce the dates for upcoming sales and fests. The information is designed so that developers can opt-in to have their games included, and plan for the year ahead. But if you're looking to buy a boatload of games, you might also want to plan when based on potential discounts.

Valve have now announced the relevant dates for the first four months of 2024.

Here's the list, copied direct from the blog post over on Steam:

• Capitalism and Economy Fest: January 8 - 15
• Pirates vs. Ninjas Fest: January 22 - 29
• Next Fest: February 5 - 12
• Remote Play Together: February 12 - 19
• Dinos vs. Robots Fest: February 26 - March 4
• Spring Sale: March 14 - 21 (major seasonal sale)
• Deckbuilders Fest: March 25 - April 1

The names are probably quite self-explanatory, but Steam's documentation now includes pages for each fest to explain what kinds of games qualify. Games in the "Dinos vs. Robots" event, for example, "must prominently feature dinosaurs OR robots... or both" and clarifies that "Kaiju and dragons are NOT dinosaurs". Good ot know.

If you're not familiar with Steam nomenclature: a fest is a multi-day event on the Steam storefront that includes discounts on games, but also normally demos of related unreleased games and livestreams from developers. They tend to be good avenues through which to fill your Steam Wishlist and to empty your wallets.

Events like the Spring Sale, for example, tend to offer more discounts on more games, and often the deepest discounts.