The weekend’s best deals: Steam Summer Sale, Apple Back to School promo, and more

It’s the weekend, which means the time has come for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web is particularly heavy on video games, as Steam’s annual Summer Sale kicked off earlier this week. The PC gaming storefront’s latest mega-sale runs until July 7 and, as is often the case, includes thousands of discounts on games that span across genres and eras.

There’s a good chance you’re already sitting on an unwieldy backlog of games you’ve picked up from past sales, but if you’re still looking for something new to play, we’ve dug through the avalanche of offers to curate a list of the best genuine discounts we think the Summer Sale is running. We’ve laid out more than 60 deals on Ars favorites below, and while not every pick is at the absolute lowest price we’ve tracked, all of them are going for notably less than the street prices we’ve seen from the major storefronts over the past several months. (And for any games not on our list, price-tracking tools like IsThereAnyDeal are useful for ensuring that the “bargain” you’re eyeing is actually a bargain.) If you prefer not to use Steam, we’ve also noted other PC game stores where these prices are available.

The highlights include past Ars Game of the Year winners like Hades (down to $15), Celeste ($5), and Psychonauts 2 ($30), plus well-reviewed 2022 games like the meta comedy The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe ($17) and the breezy LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga ($37). Many of the lesser-publicized gems we’ve highlighted during past Summer Sales are deeply discounted once again, while bigger-name hits like the co-op adventure It Takes Two ($16) and the tense VR shooter Half-Life Alyx ($30) are back down to the best prices we’ve seen on PC. Steam sales are often a good time to grab some older titles that still hold up as well, and this time, classics like the roguelite Spelunky ($1.49), the co-op puzzler Portal 2 ($2), and the bonkers hack-and-slasher Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance ($7), among others, are all down to single-digit prices. Valve has a bundle that includes more than 20 of its own hits available for $13, too.

There are plenty more worthwhile deals beyond those, and with Nintendo’s eShop commencing its own “Super Sale” this week, our roundup includes several handpicked discounts for Switch owners as well. If you can’t bear the thought of stuffing your gaming backlog any further, though, the Dealmaster still has lower-than-usual prices on recommended tech like the Apple Watch SE and Series 7, laptops from Asus and Gigabyte, and LG OLED TVs. We also have falling prices on GPUs and the start of Apple’s annual Back to School promotion, which this year is bundling Apple gift cards with select Macs and iPads for students, parents of students, and higher education staff. You can find our full curated list of deals below.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Featured deals of the day

Best deals of Steam Summer Sale 2022

Other video game deals

• Hades (Switch) for $15 ($25) at Nintendo (also on Game Pass)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition (Switch) for $30 ($50) at Nintendo
• Dark Souls Remastered (Switch) for $20 ($40) at Nintendo
• MLB The Show 22 (Switch, PS4) for $40 ($55) at Nintendo, PSN (PS5 for $50, also on Game Pass)
• Pokemon Brilliant Diamond (Switch) for $30 ($50) at Best Buy, GameStop (discount in cart)
• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (Switch) for $40 ($50) at Amazon, Target, Best Buy
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale (Switch, PS4) for $14 ($20) at Nintendo, PSN
• Mega Man 11 (Switch) for $10 ($20) at Nintendo
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (Switch, PS4) for $20 ($30) at Nintendo, PSN
• Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch) for $5 ($18) at Nintendo
• Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch, PS4) for $13 ($20) at Amazon, Nintendo, PSN
• Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age (Switch) for $35 ($50) at Nintendo (also on Game Pass)
• Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch) for $20 ($50) at Nintendo

• Inside (Switch) for $2 ($10) at Nintendo
• Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition (Switch, Xbox) for $15 ($25) at Nintendo, Xbox (also on Game Pass)
• Slay the Spire (Switch) for $10 ($20) at Nintendo (also on Game Pass)
• Cuphead (Switch) for $14 ($20) at Nintendo
• Wandersong (Switch, Xbox) for $5 ($20) at Nintendo, Xbox
• Ape Out (Switch) for $4 ($15) at Nintendo
• Olija (Switch) for $7 ($15) at Nintendo
• Elden Ring (Xbox, PS4, PS5) for $47 ($55) at Amazon, Walmart
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox) for $44 ($55) at Amazon, Nintendo
• The Yakuza Remastered Collection (PS4) for $16 ($25) at PSN (also on Game Pass)
• Ghostwire: Tokyo (PS5) for $30 ($50) at Amazon, Best Buy, PSN
• Doom Eternal (PS4, Xbox) for $15 ($25) at Amazon, Best Buy (free PS5 upgrade, also on Game Pass)
• Metal Gear Solid (PC) for $7 ($10) at GOG
• 30+ PC games (Far Cry 4, Death Squared, Astrologaster, etc.) for free at Prime Gaming (Prime users only)

Electronics deals

Laptop and desktop PC deals

• Apple Back to School Promo: Get up to a $150 Apple Gift Card with select Macs, up to a $100 Apple Gift Card with select iPads at Apple (EDU members only)
• Apple MacBook Air (2020) 13.3-inch laptop (Apple M1, 2560×1600, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $900 ($950) at Amazon, Best Buy, B&H
• Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) 14-inch gaming laptop (Ryzen 9 6900HS, 2560×1600 120 Hz, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Radeon RX 6700S 8GB) for $1,500 ($1,650) at Best Buy
• Gigabyte Aorus 15P KD 15.6-inch gaming laptop (Core i7-11800H, 1080p 240 Hz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, GeForce RTX 3060 6GB) for $1,199 ($1,340) at Amazon, Best Buy
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6-core/12-thread desktop CPU for $164 ($180) at Amazon, B&H
• Gigabyte Gaming OC Radeon RX 6700 XT (12GB GDDR6) graphics card for $450 ($550) at Newegg (use code: VGAGBET252)

• Gigabyte Gaming OC GeForce RTX 3070 (8GB GDDR6) graphics card for $550 ($630) at Newegg (use code: VGAGBET246)
• MSI Ventus 3X Plus GeForce RTX 3080 (12GB GDDR6) graphics card for $800 ($975) at Amazon ($770 w/ mail-in rebate at Newegg)
• LG 27GL850-B 27-inch gaming monitor (1440p, 144 Hz, IPS, FreeSync, G-Sync Compatible) for $297 ($365) at Amazon
• Gigabyte M32U 31.5-inch gaming monitor (4K, 144 Hz, IPS, FreeSync) for $650 ($730) at B&H
• Gigabyte Aorus FO48U 48-inch gaming monitor (4K, 120 Hz, OLED, VRR) for $800 ($1,050) at Amazon, B&H, Newegg
• WD Black SN850 (2TB) PCIe 4.0 internal SSD for $216 ($250) at Newegg (use code: WDJUNE22)
• Crucial MX500 (4TB) 2.5-inch SATA internal SSD for $320 ($355) at Amazon, Best Buy
• WD Black P10 (2TB) portable HDD for $40 ($75) at GameStop

Gaming accessory deals

Accessories and miscellaneous deals