Steam's Spring Cleaning event encourages PC gamers to clear out their backlog
Valve’s vaunted Steam sales whip PC gamers into a buying frenzy, but the “Spring Cleaning” event that kicked off today has the opposite goal: coaxing people into playing games that they already own, but rarely play.
The Spring Cleaning event runs through May 28 and uses Steam’s meta-game-esque badge system to encourage backlog clearing. Playing games that you haven’t touched in a while—or at all—completes daily tasks or one-time projects that unlock a special Spring Cleaning badge, which can then be leveled up by dipping further into your library.
Interestingly, Steam scans your backlog and user profile to create custom objectives for each user. Selecting today’s “Spin Cycle” daily task, for instance, picks four random games from your library to play. The “Trusted Friend” project, on the other hand, scans your backlog to suggest games you own that your friends have recommended on the platform. Other one-time projects have you playing a game you’ve spent more than two hours in, but not in a while, and the first title you ever added to your account.