Steam Promo: Before or After the sale? What to do about the release?

[Halla Rempt]

On dinsdag 24 februari 2026 23:59:32 Midden-Europese standaardtijd Emmet O'Neill wrote:
> Hey all.
> 
> I'm trying to pick out a date for our upcoming day-long Steam promotion, so
> I'm looking for input from the team.
> 
> While I'm not able to mention the specific dates of the upcoming Steam
> Spring Sale (they can be found online), it starts really soon after our
> planned 5.3.0 release date of March 18th. We can't run our Daily Deal promo
> *during* the Steam Sale, and there are *no slots available on the 18th. *
> 
> As of right now, the closest available promo slot to our planned release
> date is on *Monday March 16th* (a few days before the Steam Spring Sale
> starts). The next available slots are just after the Spring Sale, on *Thursday
> March 26*.
> 

We discussed this in the meeting, and the conclusion was to aim for April, because the release is planned for March 18th.


> With all that in mind, I have a few questions for the group...
> 
> > Q1: What do you think would be a more effective timing for this promo?
> 
> My intuition tells me that it'd be better to run our Daily Deal promo
> *before* the Steam Spring Sale, when there are probably more eyes on the
> Steam Store and people have more cash on hand. In that case, we should
> probably book a slot on Monday, March 16th.
> 
> > Q2: If we pick an earlier date for the promo, should we attempt to move
> our 5.3.0 release date forward a few days to coincide with the Steam Daily
> Deal promo?
> 
> I think it would be *nice* to be able to run the sale as a new version of
> Krita is out. With that said, I also don't think it's a huge deal either
> way. If we have to market it as "5.3 coming soon!" instead of "5.3 out
> now!" I don't know if it makes a big difference, as long as we feel that
> 5.3 is good. :)
> 
> I'm curious what you all think, and the sooner we can come to a decision on
> this the better because slots may be taken if we wait too long.
>