Steam Holiday Sales Start Dates Revealed Thanks To Confidential Document

Well, this is sure to brighten up any PC gamer's day. While this will be pegged as “rumor” just because that's how things go, it's been factually proven with some undeniable evidence consisting of an e-mail from Valve Software stating the start dates of their Autumn and Winter holiday sales on Steam.

First up, full disclosure: Given the big trouble we found ourselves in when posting code from the leaked version of GTA V, the managing staff has prohibited us from directly linking to images or videos of a sensitive nature. We're also prohibited from re-creating, hosting or displaying said content on the site. Rockstar hit us with a cease and desist with a looming fine of $250,000 if we didn't immediately remove the images of the PC code from this article.

With all that said and done, let's get to the meat and potatoes. Based on an e-mail Valve sent out to pubs and devs, the Autumn Steam sale will begin on Wednesday, November 27th and will run to Tuesday, December 3rd. The Winter holiday sale will begin on December 19th, just in time for all the festive cheer and give-gifting sessions, and it will run up until Thursday, January 2nd. Again, the letter from Valve makes this explicitly clear. The letter also explains that developers and publishers will have to lock in discounts no later than November 15th using the Steam app data service, or else the discounts won't register.

A Reddit user going by the handle of ROU_Gravitas posted a thread about the leak of the Steam holiday sale start dates. The post contains an image of an e-mail that Valve's software support sent to a Russian developer who then decided to do what any newbie indie dev would do and he sent it out to people to spread the word, against the letter's advisement that the information was confidential.

The letter has spread quite far, enough so that many people are now well aware of the leak and Steam's holiday sales dates, especially after it ended up on a Russian equivalent of Facebook called VK.com, where Reddit user, MrFreemanBBQ noted on the thread that he runs the Steam page on VK, where the image was posted. Following the breadcrumbs, that would effectively make him a certain Vyacheslav Konchits?

Anyway, Konchits noted on VK., that...

Interesting that this chap decided to stay Anonymous. Many individuals also feel Valve is absolutely pissed about the leak given that it could really eat into potential pre-holiday spending habits. However, there is a short way of potentially finding out who may have been responsible for the leak.

First up, it's been established that the guy is a Russian or Ukrainian developer. Next up, we know that he's part of a group that has had their game greenlit on Steam, since only publishers are capable of changing prices in the backend and this guy being sent an e-mail directly from Valve and sharing it with the public obviously rules out that this is a title from a major publisher. In addition to this, the game already has to be greenlit so that it's eligible for being part of the Steam sale. That removes any game that is not already available on Steam but is greenlit.

Now following that criteria I almost thought about The Light, but again, we have to rule it out since it's not on Steam, so how can it get a discount if it's not available yet?

So basically, if Valve sent this to an indie dev who is native Russian and the first place the dev sent the pic to was a Russian social media site, it stands to reason that the game would support native Russian language.

Looking through Steam's games that have been greenlit and available on Steam with native Russian language support, there are only 20 entries that fit the bill. Even fewer are designed by those based out of Russia. However, we do have titles like Legend of Eisenwald by the Russian-based Aterdux Entertainment. Could one of them have leaked it? Maybe... maybe not.

Legends of Dawn could also fit the bill, but if you look at Dreamatrix's home page and check out their company profile, they've been doing a lot of games, big and small, for many major publishers. They know the ropes, they know the PR game, they wouldn't commit software suicide like this.

Knock-Knock looks exceptionally suspicious as a potential culprit, the Kickstarted title is designed by Ice-Pick Lodge, who is conveniently located in Moscow, Russia. The game was also recently updated in the Steam database app four days ago, conveniently enough, on the day that the confidential letter was sent out. Then again, Ice-Pick Lodge has a few other games under their belt available on Steam, and it would seem unlikely they would commit to this sort of juvenile behavior and risk their game being available on the service.

While Unepic by Francisco Tellez de Meneses was also recently updated in the Steam database app and supports Russian language support natively, the problem is that he's Spanish and it wouldn't make sense that he would receive a letter using a Russian service.

Something like No More Room in Hell might seem to crop up as a culprit, but none of the people in charge fit the criteria... at all (meaning they're not based out of Russia). That's not to mention the game is free (same with Cry of Fear).

We have to discount Nihilumbra and Jesus Fabre since he's from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. We also have to discount Salvation Prophecy since Sean Lindskog is from Canada. Looks like the list got a whole lot smaller.

It'll be interesting to see who Valve names and shames (assuming they do that sort of thing) or if a small indie title of no significant importance will simply vanish from the Steam store and cease to exist on the largest PC digital distribution service on the planet.

(Image courtesy of Bit-Tech)