Several times a year, Valve hosts its Steam Next Fest as video game demo festivals to promote upcoming releases. In them, the user can try the titles you have in mind and also watch live broadcasts by the studios themselves at any part of their development.

Although the original purpose of this Steam Next Fest was to compensate for the suspension of in-person events due to the COVID pandemic, the truth is that they worked great and Valve decided to keep them. And celebrate them several times a yearlike this one in October that we’re announcing, which for one week (until October 16th) will allow players to get in touch with upcoming titles and also help developers showcase their future releases.

How to attend Steam Next Fest

Valve has a specific page on Steam for these demos and you just need to log in with your account to view them. Not everything is big triple A and most of them are titles from indie studios, but there are dozens of games to try and you’ll always find something interesting. The interface divides the large number of games by genre, while providing a wide range of tags to filter results and further refine the search according to each individual’s taste.

From there you can do a few things:

Try the game demos that interest you, move the mouse cursor over them. Here you will see a button to install the playable demo, just like with a game that has already been released.

Watch live streams. At the top of the page you will find the broadcast schedule. In most cases, development teams appear to play their own games and answer questions. Click the chat icon below the broadcast to open a chat window and join the conversation if you’re interested.

Add your favorite items to your wish list. If you’ve found a game you’d like to receive information about when it’s released, you can hover over it and click the star icon in the top right corner to add it to your wishlist. You will be notified by email when it is available.

Availability and requirements. You can also get information about games. Many of them detail the release date and others list their future retail price and PC hardware needs.

Summary. The most popular digital video game store on the market has found a way to promote upcoming releases, allowing you to try them out and contact the studios that develop them.