Sorry if this is a stupid question or if it's been asked before, but here goes.

I'll get random emails periodically informing me that a title is "Now Available on Steam" and I think back to myself like, "hasn't this been on Steam for a long time already?" and I'll like check my wishlist and the game is already in my wishlist. For example, I just got an email about a game called 20XX now being available.

Is it that these titles are maybe early access and I get the email when they are out of early access, like the official launch?

Does Steam just randomly do this in hopes of generating spontaneous sales?

Also, while I'm thinking about it, I'll also get emails from Steam telling me, "An Item on your Wishlist is on Sale!" or whatever the verbiage is they use, and when I look at the email it's usually for a game NOT on my wishlist and they all seem to be "Free to play" games.

That seems oddly underhanded.

I don't know much about Steam's business practices.

The above feels like you are on some third party spam list. Are you 100% sure that the email address is the official steam one and not being spoofed? Steam itself should not be doing that at all.

Personally I get 0 emails from Steam aside from when I do an actual purchase or a device needs verification, (or the item on my wishlist is indeed in fact on sale)

For this specifically (if that is the issue) you can go into your account settings and then into email preferences, where there is a check list of what you want or don't want to be notified about. Including being able to opt out of basically everything.

Seems like some spam hoax thing.

I get no emails like that from steam, but i may have opted out i dont remember atm.

I've been using Steam since 2004, and I've never gotten any e-mails from it that I didn't sign up for, nor have I gotten e-mails that I opted out of.

Yes, you did get that "available now" e-mail for 20XX because it just got out of Early Access. By default, any wishlisted Early Access game will trigger e-mail notifications when they get out of Early Access. Wishlisted games will also be e-mailed to you when they have promotions tied to them, such as sales, free weekends, bundles, etc. I think if you "follow" a game on Steam instead of wishlisting it, you can still keep up with it, but you can opt out of promotional e-mails for it.

I've never gotten a Steam e-mail that wasn't expected, so I would be cautious about the validity of the sender, and wary of phishing scams. Phishing isn't uncommon for services with a very large userbase, such as Steam, Blizzard/Battle Net, Google, e-mail services, etc.

Yeah, Steam will email you about games leaving Early Access if you've wishlisted them. I also received that 20XX email, because I've either followed or wishlisted that game, I forget. It's a fairly standard Steam email. Like others have said, I believe you can change your Steam email settings to receive fewer of these emails.