Klei's Steam sale cuts prices up to 90 percent for its 20th anniversary

Klei Entertainment is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a Steam sale that drops prices by up to 90 percent across its entire catalog. The studio also promised a special free item for everyone who checks out the event page.

Two decades of starving and suffocating

Klei has been around since 2005. They built their early reputation on fluid 2D animation and action games. Shank and its sequel brought hyper-violent brawling to the Xbox Live Arcade era. They followed that up with Mark of the Ninja, a 2D stealth game that gave players clear visual indicators for sound and light. You always knew exactly how much noise your footsteps were making. It is still one of the best stealth games ever made.

Then the studio figured out people really like dying in brutal survival environments. Don't Starve changed the trajectory of the company. The gothic survival game mixed a gloomy art style with unforgiving resource management. It spawned multiple expansions and a highly successful standalone multiplayer version called Don't Starve Together.

They applied a similar ruthlessness to Oxygen Not Included. That colony management simulator tasks you with keeping a group of clones alive inside a giant space rock. Your duplicants usually die from a lack of breathable air, food poisoning, or terrible plumbing decisions. Both of these survival games are heavily discounted right now.

Expanding the catalog

The studio does not just make its own games anymore. Klei has built out a publishing wing to support other independent developers.

Beastieball is a turn-based RPG where you coach a team of creatures in a volleyball tournament. Rift of the Necrodancer takes the rhythm mechanics of Crypt of the Necrodancer and applies them to a lane-based combat system.

The publisher is also backing Mind Over Magic, a simulation game where you design and manage a wizard school. You have to build classrooms, hire teachers, and try to keep your students from being eaten by monsters in the basement. Another upcoming title is Fretless, a pixel-art RPG that uses musical instruments as weapons.

The sale event also includes Lab Rat, a satirical puzzle game where a metrics-obsessed AI forces you to push blocks and generate engagement data. U.V.S. Nirmana is another upcoming title on their publishing slate.

The sale covers older deep cuts from Klei's internal teams as well. Invisible, Inc. is a turn-based cyberpunk espionage game that still holds up beautifully. You break into corporate facilities, steal what you can, and try to get out before the alarm level maxes out. Griftlands is a deck-building roguelike where you can talk your way out of fights instead of just stabbing everyone.

The actual deals

You can find the full list of discounts on the Klei Fest 2026 Steam page. The 90 percent discount applies to older titles like Shank 2. They cost less than a cup of coffee right now. Newer games and early access titles have smaller but still solid price cuts.

The freebie mentioned in the sale announcement is a nice bonus. You just need to check the Steam event page to claim it.

Klei has managed to survive 20 years in an industry that routinely chews up independent developers. They did it by constantly changing genres instead of making the same game over and over. Very few independent studios make it to the 20-year mark. I am curious to see what they do for year 21.