Steam Summer Sale 2016 start date: Starts June 23, ends July 4? Titles to be confirmed

While Steam has yet to announce this year's much-anticipated Summer Sale, gamers may already have the starting and end dates for the annual event.

The information comes from a Reddit post by Redditor McFreemanBBQ. According to a screenshot posted by the Reddit user to an /r/Stream thread, this year's Steam Summer Sale could begin as early as June 23.

The screenshot appears to be a confidential message sent out by Valve. It says "Event: Summer Sale 2016 discount Approvals" and contains a note saying that the information therein is confidential. In it, the exact start and end dates, including the times, are provided in Russian. But because Steam is an international platform, the time of the summer sale is given in Pacific Standard Time. According to the screenshot, the Steam Summer Sale 2016 will begin at 9:45 a.m. PST on June 23 and end at 10 a.m. PST on July 4.

Apart from the date and time, the leaked screenshot does not provide a specific list of the games that will be offered at discounted prices during the Summer Sale.

There has been no confirmation that the screenshot comes from a legitimate source.

Nevertheless, VG 24/7 notes that McFreemanBBQ has a history of accurately breaking inside news and that he also provided the correct dates for the 2015 Steam Summer Sale, as well as several other Steam sales. While it is perfectly possible that Valve could alter the dates for the upcoming Summer Sale, the Redditor's record could mean that there is a good chance that the leaked dates for the 2016 Steam Summer Sale is accurate as well.

According to Polygon, PayPal inadvertently announced the date for the 2015 Steam Winter Sale prior to Valve's official announcement. A promotional image shared by PayPal indicated the start date for the sale ahead of the company's confirmation.

But are any of these leaks really accidental? With fans being so hooked on news of the eagerly anticipated Steam sales, it might not be too far-fetched to assume that these "leaks" could merely be promotional strategies employed by Valve to create hype for their upcoming sales.

Nonetheless, with the supposed Summer Sale just a few weeks away, an official announcement from Valve could be out any day now.