Xbox Game Studios launched a massive Steam sale encompassing a large part of its PC publishing portfolio on Valve's storefront. This collection of hefty discounts arrived just a few weeks after Xbox offered big savings on many third-party AAA games.
Formerly known as Microsoft Games, Xbox Game Studios is currently listed as the publisher of over 50 Steam titles and more than 150 pieces of DLC. Its newly launched sale will run over a two-week period ending May 4.
The XGS Publisher Sale 2023 offers up to 80% off on 39 games and 30 DLC packs. Percentage-wise, the biggest discounts were given to smaller releases like Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Recore: Definitive Edition, Dust: An Elysian Tail, and Deadlight, all of which are currently available for up to a handful of dollars each. However, the largest savings are naturally offered by the publisher's AAA catalog; for example, 67% off on Forza Horizon 4 and a 50% Sea of Thieves discount come down to $20 and $47 in savings, respectively.
The critically acclaimed Age of Empires 4 has been treated to one such hefty discount as part of this sale and is now available at $23.99, 40% down its regular price. Meanwhile, Gears 5 and Psychonauts 2 can currently be picked up at $24.49 and $20.39, respectively, 65% less than usual. Halo: The Master Chief Collection received a comparably sizable 60% discount thanks to the ongoing sale and can presently be bought at $15.99.
The XGS sale also saw choose-your-own-adventure Pentiment drop to its lowest price yet, as the latest title from Obsidian Entertainment is currently available at 33% off, or $13.39. Steam users interested in playing some classics on the cheap can use this wave of discounts to pick up Fable Anniversary and Age of Mythology: Extended Edition for under $10 each. Halo spinoffs Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike one-up those offers of affordable entertainment with 75% discounts that saw them drop to 74 cents a piece.
After Pentiment, the latest release encompassed by this sale is unique survival game Grounded, another interesting experiment from Obsidian which released in September 2022 and is currently available at $29.99, or 25% off. Forza Horizon 5 seems to be the highest-profile omission from this newly launched wave of price cuts, but that's likely because it was available at 40% off in the second half of March as part of the recently concluded Steam Spring Sale. And while this latest promo doesn't encompass that many pieces of individual DLC, many of the currently discounted titles are definitive, content-complete editions of their respective games.