The idea behind the Steam Game Festival is a really generous one, from both the perspective of the developers showing off their projects and consumers who’re wanting to be a little wiser with how they spend their money. Having first been held back in December of 2019 alongside The Game Awards, what was initially a humble offering of a handful of demos suddenly exploded in scale with the Summer Game Festival, which offered players over 900 free demos.
The snippets of games were available for a week but I mean…does anyone actually have the time to try out 900 games in seven days? One has to hope that the next iteration of the digital festival is a little more restrained in how much it offers players when it drops in October.
Geoff Keighley, that guy you saw in Death Stranding, announced on Twitter that the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition starts on 7 October and runs through to 13 October. That’s a full week to experience, “Another chance to play free previews of upcoming games.” Yet the amount still stands to question, Geoffrey.
How many games will there be this time, GEOFFREY? You thought people could handle 900, are you insane enough to give us even more? Make it 1000 games you coward. Why not just bump it up to 1200 free demos? Actually, just be a damn icon and give us double of what we had last time. 1800 free demos, Geoff. You’re a mad man but I doubt even you’re that unhinged.
There’s not much else known about the upcoming Autumn Steam Game Festival but one has to assume that plenty more details will be revealed closer to the time. Also, please have a slightly more fine-tuned selection process, Valve? As great as it sounds for a marketing pitch, a week to try 900 games is absolutely ridiculous.
Last Updated: August 13, 2020
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 13, 2020 at 13:13
As per Steam:
“Demos will be eligible for the Autumn Edition if the game’s launch date is set between October 13th, 2020, and May 1, 2021. If your game is ineligible this time, don’t worry! We will be announcing details soon on future Steam Game Festivals for 2021.
Here’s how you can prepare to participate:
Start preparing your demo
Make sure to build your game’s store page so it is ready to go by the time you opt-in
Opt-in anytime between August 19th and August 26th”
Those entry requirements should reduce the numbers a bit.
Pariah
August 13, 2020 at 12:21
Yeah nobody would try all 900 games anyway. People are only going to try what they’re interested in. Last time I tried 6 games total, took me half a Saturday to get through them. I spent 3 hours going through the list to see if there were games that caught my eye. Only 6 did. Only 1 made it onto my wishlist. The other 894 games just didn’t interest me.
So variety is good.