They might be bringing back their flash sales… which means people are not going to buy games until end of sales…
Well, we shall see what comes of this. I don’t like it, but oh well, they can do whatever they want, as long as they think it will bring in more money for them…
I rather enjoyed the flash sales, but also recognise that they’re not actually a particularly good idea. Keeping an eye on the store to see what would come up next was something that made the steam sales a little more exciting, but on the other hand it tied you down and made you have to come back every 8h (at it’s worst?) or you’d miss out.
Overall I think I’d prefer if they stay gone, but a tiny corner of my mind kind of rejoiced at the notion.
think i’m sorta in the same boat as Fraggles
i did enjoy them, but also sorta mildly annoying having to check in X times a day to “make sure”, (and often not even a game you then wanted),
i don’t think i’ll mind too much if they keep it reasonable, since i have managed to find nice deals elsewhere on their “flash” sales, tho usually longer deals than steams old ones
i do think they are gonna potentially shoot themself in the foot, given their refund system. Tho i imagine devs/publishers that aren’t on a semi automatic “fixed” refular discount setup, will probably get reminded to not do the old “have a flash sale now, and then another/cheaper sale 1-2weeks later” -which would just potentially flood their refund system i guess
and i wonder how many (decent games) are actually gonna take steam up on this 
given how some discount trends might seem to have “stagnated” in recent couple of years
but if it does shake things up, and get me some nice ol’ 80-90% discounts, then i’m probably okay with it, 
, (as long as my ITAD doesn’t go completely haywire lol)
Well, I guess this does keep people more glued to the site during the sales, and that might mean bigger profits, I am guessing the number of actual sales probably directly correspond with the number of people on the site and the number of games on sale. But now people are going to sit and wait and wait and wait during the sales until the final day probably to make purchases, just in case the games they are looking for comes in on a flash sale.
And I wonder how many people have games sitting in their carts and they waited a tad too long, and the sale ends without them finalizing their purchases.
I am curious about how the math will work out, realistically anyway.
I wouldn’t mind if each sale is slated for 12-hrs at a time, that seems quite reasonable, but if they end up having changes more often than that, I would probably end up cursing myself for missing some deals. No doubt, the one time I decide not to check will be the time a game I want shows up… 
I doubt it matters much to the developers if people buy their games on day 1 or the last day of the sale. From that perspective I can’t see a negative side.
The main issue I have with it is about “gamefying” shopping and the somewhat exploitative psychological tricks that short sale periods does to people. You get this sense of urgency which makes you value the product more highly and you also don’t think the purchase through as thoroughly as you might have otherwise. No one wants to idle and ‘miss a great deal’ even if they never even really wanted the item in question to begin with. This is part of why the flash sales were a thing to start with.
From that perspective not having them is the more consumer friendly situation. Even if you might end up getting a cheaper game or two out of it.
without knowing anything
i’ve for a while speculated that steam, despite proudly proclaiming high sales during removal of flash sales at first after steam refunds
that they might have been facing reduced sales, maybe not to a “bad” point, but probably something a business type takes note of and want to change
even if many 3rd party sites have operated for years, and humble/other bundle deals also existing before, it really seems like they’ve taken off tremendously, incl their marketing, the past few years, -which i’m guessing steam has “felt”
just something “small” as itad gaining popularity, or people being more aware of deal sites and “pc gamers actually get bundles”, probably mean that the regular sales (which as mentioned has seen less “spectacular” discount than previous), might have drawn less numbers or even less than desired
i know i’ve spent less on steam than i have elsewhere the last year or two,
-my “spur of the moment” purchases coming from 3rd party sites, and that’s not to even mention before all the bundles that also chop away at my “purse”+wishlist & inclination to buy at less than X discount for some games
as places like steamgifts, reddit, itad etc, increasingly makes people aware, that there are safe, legit and good enough 3rd party stores/deals to be had “better discounts” at, i think the curve might gonna keep switching to leaning towards some customers moving off steam store for purchases. -All that before even going into how “grey” markets continue to rise and gain popularity among some too, -where “the sticker”/cents truly is all that matters
even pre purchases and day1/first week purchases are getting discounted better on launch off steam, so i wouldn’t be surprised if valve might have “felt” that too 
anyways, just my random rampant speculation,
for all i know steam could still have millions of “lazy”/ease of use/comfort purchasers that just dgaf and prefer the 1 click option. To where valve don’t notice the competition and isn’t doing this to gain numbers “back”, -but just the regular business thaing of wanting “all” the customers lol
That’s only a problem for people that buys 300 games on the first day like they will vanish.
And then Steam makes a ton of money from cards/badges, etc, like this guy…
https://steamed.kotaku.com/steams-highest-level-user-finally-dethroned-after-two-y-1828069931
Some times I just can’t wrap my mind around something like this… 
I don’t know if this helps but here is a website: http://steamsales.rhekua.com/oh_shi.php
You can check if a game you want to buy has the best discount on steam. I think the data is not completely up to date but might help for some older games.
I use https://steamdb.info
Works like a charm! 
edit: here’s a random game as an example!
Scroll down and you can see its price history and how much it costs in different countries, etc!
I think a lot of us ITAD…
if the flash sales are coming back im going to assume they have solved the refund problem, which to be honest isn’t hard to do, just dont issue a refund for games bought in sales until a sale is over.
flash sales do exactly what they are intended to do, keep people checking on the store page, if you dont want to keep checking the store page for a potential extra 5-20% off well then simply dont. i’ve never understood the argument that flash sales are bad because people dont want to do something not required of them in any way
problem is that would “violate” a couple of policies, including their own that was specifically laid out
“I bought a game right before it went on sale. Can I get a refund and repurchase it at the sale price?”
Yes.
which was the “initial” speculation people had as to why they removed flash sales, not wanting those “zillions” of refunds when a game then had another/cheaper sale, within the 14day discount period, -like when the old flash sales had that 1x flash sale price, and then closer to the end another flash sale even cheaper
but like mentioned, wouldn’t be that hard to combat, just simply put a "no sale/no cheaper discount"on X for 14days post previous sale/flash deal
but picking and choosing when refunds apply/“refund applies to this sale, but not this sale”, would probably start to put steam into those mildly more troubled waters of “can you do this”, -with how things are different “place to place”
