Steam Lunar New Year sale offers extra discounts for big spenders

Another day, another big Steam sale, but this one is a little more straightforward. To celebrate the Chinese year of the pig, prices are slashed on many games until February 11th, 6pm GMT, and spending £30 gets you a one-time £5 discount. More convoluted is the sale rewards booth page here. You're awarded virtual pig-tokens based on how much you've spent on Steam in the past, and earn more through spending during the sale. You can trade in your tokens for chat emotes, profile backgrounds or (if you spend a lot) another £5 coupon. Check out the main sale page here.

Also happening during this sale is an official Steam Awards Show. Airing at 10am Pacific (6pm GMT), the winners of the winter sale user awards will be announced on Steam TV. You can tune in here when it happens, but for now the link just redirects you Realm Royale. If nothing else, Valve know how to throw a party - The International tournament for Dota 2 including an AI exhibition match co-commentated by Portal's GladOS was a nice touch. Here's hoping for more of that kind of pageantry for the awards show.

The rewards booth is a bit over-complicated, but Valve do like their sales to have a messy edge to them. As I've spent way too much on games over the years, I ended up with 5000 tokens. To get the £5 discount, I'd need to earn another 10,000 tokens at a rate of £1 per 127 (or 139 if gifting). That'd be a hefty £78.74 to get a single £5 discount, or £71.94 if buying for friends. I'll (shamefully) admit I've spent more than that on games before in one day, but that's still a tall order. Still, £5 off a £30 purchase on already-discounted games isn't half bad. I may thin out my wishlist a little today.

Steam's Lunar New Year sale is live now and runs until February 11th, 6pm GMT. The rewards booth closes at the same time on February 12th.