But while I'm here, I might as well mention that Steam has begun its Autumn Sale, presumably in honor of Thanksgiving and to coincide with Black Friday. This comes just a few days after the Autumn Seal website stopped giving out free coupons for a short list of games (Alan Wake Collector's Edition, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Trine, Trine 2, Trine 2: Goblin Menace, Trine Complete Collection, Legend of Grimrock, and Rochard).
The Trine series coupons have already expired as of last night, but the Alan Wake series and Legend of Grimrock coupons are still good for the rest of the day, and the Rochard coupon is still good through tomorrow. In addition, all of these games are currently 50% off, as a result of the current sale. So here's the big question: Do the Autumn Seal coupons' discounts stack with the sale's discounts?
As you can see, I have a few of each (unexpired) coupon left, since it took that many spins of the Autumn Seal slot machine to get the Trine coupons I really wanted.
All week, I've felt like an idiot for having so many of these coupons and not using them — I wanted at least to give them away — but it looks as if my coupon hoarding might have paid off.
The Rochard, Legend of Grimrock, and Alan Wake's American Nightmare coupons all work as expected. Only the Alan Wake Collector's Edition coupon doesn't seem to work at first glance, but that's because it's misnamed (and this is a good thing). Despite what the coupon says, it actually applies to the Alan Wake Franchise pack, which includes the Collector's Edition as well as American Nightmare.
Since the discounts are applied one at a time, a 50% coupon used on a 50%-off game totals to 75% off, as is the case with Legend of Grimrock and the Alan Wake games. Rochard, on the other hand, ends up being around 87.5% off, which would be a fantastic deal if the game weren't so recently included in a pay-what-you-want Humble Bundle. Overall, though, this is pretty good. While a Steam coupon is typically useless because it almost never offers as good a discount as one might find during a seasonal sale, the fact that these coupons can be used during this event makes them worth having.
Of course, the coupons are only good for the very beginning of this sale, and some of these games will surely be featured as daily deals after the coupons expire, in which case they will end up being around 75% off anyway.
At least now we know that it is possible for coupons to stack with existing discounts. Since it so rarely happens, a lot of people tend to think either that coupons are deactivated during sales or that they're timed perfectly to expire before any sale begins. (During the last Winter sale, coupons were given out, but they weren't activated until after the sale was over, and there wasn't another sale until the coupons were dead.)
Anyhow, I'm planning on trading away (or giving away) as many of these coupons as I can, and perhaps even using a few of them myself to buy gifts for friends. I could just wait until a daily deal gives me the equivalent discount, but this way, I actually get to make use of my Steam inventory instead of just letting stuff sit there until it vanishes.
