Steam Summer Sale launch date slips out?

With Summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) in full swing, Valve is expected to launch its money-munching Steam Summer Sale, but no one knows when exactly; although, some internet sleuths seem to have an idea when it begins.

Firstly, a Steam support e-mail responding to a customer asking a query about a Left 4 Dead 2 discount read the following:

Steam Support email

Secondly, Steam’s Russian payment partner, QIWI, offered a discount on Steam Wallet deposits ahead of the “11 July sale”.

Another payment partner, Yandex.Money, also put the same offer up ahead of the “sale”.

There are a few indicators from Steam itself, such as the Midweek Madness deals scheduled to end six hours earlier than usual, and a Team Fortess 2 update packing a mysterious “Summer Appetizer crate”.

So by all accounts, it really does appear that Steam Summer Sale will kick off on 11 July 2013. I guess we’ll see tomorrow.